The Poltergiest Report Card
by Dragon XD
Summary: He survived the Dark Tournament, battled in the Demon Tournament, and saved the Human Realm about half a dozen times. Now Kurama must face his greatest challenge...going to high school.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: High School

The city of Tokyo was experiencing its usual amount of nightlife. On a rather busy street corner, a teenager with long red hair watched the steady flow of traffic, both pedestrian and automotive pass through his field of vision with only the slightest bit of attention. It was an odd feeling to be standing amongst the crowd of people so unaware of what had gone on only days before. If things had gone just a bit differently just a week ago, the urban jungle he was standing in would have been something between a battleground and a desolate wasteland.

With the Demon Tournament over and a somewhat peaceful ruler now imposing his will over the other realm, Kurama wondered if things would be settling down for a few years. It was a bit of a disturbing thought really. Ever since he had decided to remain in the human realm, he had been taking care of monster problems in one form or another long before even meeting Yusuke or the others. It seemed that might not be the case anymore.

There would still be the minor demon showing up to cause trouble every now and then, but the earth-shattering stuff wouldn't be happening for a few decades at least. He could handle the occasional small fry that was bound to creep up from time to time.

A small demonic aura on the edge of his senses made Kurama look back the way he came. He tried to search for the energy he had felt a moment ago to determine if it was up to anything, but decided to forget about it when he couldn't pin it down beyond a general direction.

_Probably nothing anyway_, the fox assured himself. Despite this being the Human Realm, there were several other sentient species that made their homes on the planet. Most of them were pretty much harmless, and few of the really powerful ones actually dwelt in large cities.

Kurama turned his thoughts away from such things, and back towards his plans for the future. The lack of any real problems meant he could concentrate on more…mundane things, like the task he had finished today; his high-school entrance exams. Soon he would be going off to high school like an everyday human. That would be followed by getting a job, then starting a career, and pretty much just living a normal human life.

The thought was a little…disconcerting. While he had no problems with never having to get involved in a life or death struggle, at least until the next tournament to decide the ruler of Demon Realm, such a life for a being like Kurama was simply…._wrong_.

As the crossing sign turned green, Kurama went with the rest of the group he was in. They moved into the road, and Kurama listened to the other people make pleasant conversation with each other. There was a young couple talking about the boy's first meeting with the girl's parents, some kids discussing about the latest manga, low-ranking businessmen on their way from a meeting, and half a dozen others just in earshot as the group got onto the other side of the street. He broke apart from the crowd and headed into the subway station to board the train that would take him closer to home.

Once inside, he took a seat and looked at his ghostly reflection in the window. For a moment his imagination took over, and Kurama saw the reflection of his old self. It seemed to stare back at him in a mocking manner, reminding the demon what would always lay just beneath the surface. _The simple fact is, I am not a human, nor will I ever be one_, he told himself.

Of course had he chosen to remain in the Demon Realm, Kurama knew that he would have been even more dissatisfied. He would be constantly thinking of his human mother, if his human side had been able to win out in a battle of natures under such circumstances. But such a thought was irrelevant now. He was Shuichi Minamino, he was in the Human Realm…and he was alone.

Kurama was brought out of his thoughts by the presence he had felt earlier. It was stronger now, closer. In fact he could sense it slowly moving towards him in the opposite direction that the train was going. Which mean that his pursuer was on the train despite the fact that Kurama hadn't detect him get close enough to have boarded at the station.

"A teleporter?" he mumbled too low for anyone around him to hear.

After considering his options for a moment, Kurama got up and headed towards the back of the car and into the next one. He continued on till he made it to the last car on the train. With him a proverbial corner that he had chosen, Kurama went to the very back of the car while leaving some seeds on the floor along his way as he walked. He sat down before letting some of the restraint free with his demonic aura.

It took a few moments, but Kurama watched as the humans in front of him became more and more nervous, each one eventually deciding that it was a better idea to head up into one of the more cramped cars than stick around. They would have had no idea why of course. It was just a feeling, a tingling in the back of their minds; something left over from when demons roamed the earth freely and used humans as food that told them it was best not to stay where they were now.

A minute after everyone else had left, the owner of the aura Kurama was sensing came into the car. He must have been one of those out of touch with humanity monsters. The stranger had on heavy white robes and a hood that made him look something akin to a western priest. Even without the aura he was putting out, anyone would have been able to see something was different about the man.

"I'm afraid I need to get off at the next stop, so let us skip the usual banter shall we?" Kurama said as the door closed behind the man automatically. "Tell me why you're following me."

"My, such a rude young monster you are," the stranger replied before reaching into his robe to pull out a folded up piece of paper. "But I suppose that's to be expected of teenagers these days. Tell me, do you enjoy going to school with humans?"

Kurama frowned before he let his demonic aura flare to intimidate the stranger. "I told you to get to the point."

"Now now, there's no need for that young man," the priest said before holding up his hands. "In answer to your question, one of my associates that works in the testing office you left half an hour ago informed me of your presence, and the various schools you sent your test results to. Of course, Yokai Academy doesn't require an entrance exam, but I'm certain you'd be placed in the top class judging by your test scores. As-"

A bit lost, Kurama held up his hand to stop the man from continuing and kept his voice steady to hide his confusion. "Excuse me, what are you talking about?" From the sounds of things he was giving out a sales pitch…for a _high school_?

"Why, your oversight in not applying to Yokai Academy of course," the man explained as it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Mr. Minamino, I can see that you seem to be fitting in among humans to some extent. In fact it may be going better than that, but as we seem to have no records of any previous human society integration training, I _do_ advise you to at least look over our program. You do indeed seem to have the intelligence to of hidden inside human society for the time being, but there are humans out there that still actively hunt monsters down. Even if the majority of their kind do not know of our existence, there are a small minority that actively pursue creatures such as yourself. It might be the prudent course of action to at least consider this institution.

"Of course, it _is_ a credited high school. In fact it's considered a top notch private academy," the exorcist quickly added. "There's no point in having such a place unless it also fulfills its secondary role of education."

"I…see," Kurama said while doing everything to keep the confusion from showing on his face. _There is actually a group in existence that is trying to train demons to fit into human society_? There was also the question of how people could think a place that didn't require an entrance exam was a good school, but Kurama left that question unasked.

The idea seemed almost laughable. Not in the fact that there was someone trying to do it, but that someone actually thought it needed to be done. When it really came down to it, humans and demons weren't really all that different. They simply came from two different worlds…literally. If anything, demons were just more honest about their nature than humans.

Still, he couldn't feel any deception in what the stranger said. The man was being serious.

"Well, thank you for your concern," Kurama told them man before letting himself relax a bit. "Perhaps I shall look into it after all."

After the priest took his leave, Kurama gave himself a good thirty seconds before getting up to retrieve the brochure and letting his demonic aura dissipate so that humans would start to come into the car again.

To any human, the front of the paper would look like a normal advertisement for a private school, albeit one with an odd name. The tingle Kurama was getting from the writing on the back told him that only spiritually aware people would be able to see it. That side of the pamphlet explained the school's real purpose: training to fit into human society.

After reading the paper over, Kurama sat back in his seat and frowned. From what he could surmise, whomever was behind this place was in it for the long haul. As far as Kurama knew, there were no more beings left alive capable of actually threatening the human race. Any hope a would be conqueror in the Human Realm had was to bide his time, and slowly build his power base while keep off of Spirit Realm's radar.

Which was eexactally this place seemed to be attempting to do.

_Well, I suppose I should just hand this information over to Koenma and be done with it_, Kurama thought before he moved to put the brochure into his pocket, and stopped.

Of course if he did that, it would be back to a human life. The whole idea had even less appeal than it had ten minutes ago before learning of this Yokai Academy.

There was also little fact that as far as he knew, Koenma was still banished from Spirit World and had a death warrant with his name on it, sighed by his father no less.

Kurama looked down at the brochure again. If it really was the to be the source of the next big headache, Kurama supposed _he_ could take care of it. Even in his human form, he was one of if not _the_ most powerful demon in the Human Realm. But then again, doing so would mean missing the beginning of high school, despite the fact the place he was thinking of going to was technically a high school.

Kurama thought over it for a moment more, and let out a small laugh at his own foolishness; as well as the fact that he was still going to go on with it. "I suppose, one last excursion couldn't be too much trouble, or time consuming."

One week to take out this Yokai Academy place, and then he could get into a real high school. At least this time he'd be getting rid of the problem before it became a world endangering catastrophe; and the thought of having one last excursion before he moved on with his life seemed somewhat appealing.

Now he just needed to talk his mother into letting him go to a boarding school…

-1 week later-

Kurama made one last check to make sure he had all of this things out of the car before saying goodbye to his mother's husband who dropped him off at the bus stop. As soon as the man drove off, Kurama took a seat on the bus stop's bench to wait for the transportation that would take him to Yokai Academy.

What came along next was a bit surprising. Before the bus showed up, Kurama watched a boy that looked about Kurama's physical age drag his luggage up to the bus stop. He didn't look like anything special, average height, weight, and build. He was just one of those people that was the perfect example of forgettable.

The newcomer looked around for a moment, then down at a piece of paper he was holding, and then finally over to Kurama. "Excuse me, but are you waiting for the 10:13 bus?"

Kurama resisted the urge to frown. He knew the odd schedule that the bus was due to stop at, which was out of necessity since it wasn't an actual city bus, but from looking at the boy's aura…_ Strange, I could swear this boy is a human_. There was something a bit odd about it though, something Kurama couldn't quite put his finger on.

After realizing that he still hadn't answered the boy's question, Kurama looked over to the kid and gave a fake smile. "Yes that's right, have you been enrolled as well?"

The newcomer let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, it's just a little odd seeing someone else here, I thought I'd be the only person being picked up at this stop."

"Yes…well…" Kurama said as he tried to come up with a reply that wouldn't make him look out of place. Although it seemed he wouldn't have to. "Oh look, here's the bus," he told the boy before pointing to the coming vehicle.

The arrival of the bus cut their conversation short as Kurama and the boy got their bags and went onboard. Once they had taken their seats, the conversation resumed.

"By the way, my name is Tsukune Aono."

"Shuichi Minamino," Kurama replied with a false smile.

For the rest of the short trip, Tsukune seemed to ask any question that popped into his head while Kurama answered in the most roundabout manner he could; or avoided the question altogether. He didn't want to get into a deep conversation with the boy. Kurama was too busy trying to figure out an explanation for the human's presence. The boy had no spiritual power that Kurama could feel beyond what a normal human his age should have.

What he did learn was that the boy was indeed going to Yokai Academy, and was a second year student at the school; although Kurama didn't bother asking if he was a transfer student from a different high school. That was obvious with him being a human. There was also the disturbing fact that the more time Kurama spent with the boy, despite how out of place Tsukune was, Kurama was more and more certain he was human.

A few minutes later, the bus pulled into a dark tunnel that seemed to swallow all light coming from the outside at its edge. Kurama felt the telltale shift in the air around him that told him something was different before they even exited the tunnel. When they did come out, the color of the sky and feel of the atmosphere had changed to something more akin to the Demon Realm.

He marveled at the careful engineering it had taken to create such a place, but stopped when a realization hit him. _Wait, humans can't survive in this kind of environment_! He spun around to look at the human while thinking what he could use to prolong the boy's life…

Tsukune blinked at Shuichi's disturbed expression. "Something wrong?"

…and calmed himself down when he saw the boy was alright. Whatever changes the area had undergone, they seemed to be only cosmetic. Humans couldn't survive in a demonic atmosphere unless they had a considerable amount of spiritual energy to help them, and even they couldn't last forever. _So either he really is a demon, which I suppose would make more sense seeing as how there's only one of him. If the group running this place actually wanted humans here, there would be a great many more people coming on this bus_. "It's nothing," Kurama said before the bus came to a stop and he quickly gathered his things.

"Hey wait up," Tsukune shouted from inside the bus as he struggled to get his luggage down from the compartment where he had stored it.

"Sorry, but I really need to get these put away in my dorm before the entrance ceremony starts," Kurama lied before he took off towards the school. What he really needed to do was conduct recon on the other monsters currently on site, find whatever dark lord/master/whatever was running this place, and figure out the easiest way to deal with the problem as fast as possible before getting on with his life.

But there was no need to share that bit of information.

Tsukune moaned in despair as he watched the pretty-boy take off towards the school at a speed he couldn't hope to catch up with even if he didn't have to drag a pair of suitcases around; which was a pretty big blow to his ego as it seemed Shuichi had even more luggage than Tsukune but didn't seem affected by it all that much.

Unfortunately Tsukune's vampire strength that had been absent all break had neglected to return when he came back to the academy. Maybe Moka needed to give him a booster injector or something?

"So does that mean he's really a monster after all?" Tsukune asked himself. During the trip over he had asked Minamino some casual questions to try and figure out if he was just another monster, or a normal human. It was rare, but they did end up at Yokai Academy from time to time.

Tsukune was still too divided on the issue. He seemed pretty polite, which was a point in the human column, but Minamino hadn't really given Tsukune much in the way of personal information to help the human try and figure out if the redhead really was a monster. Then there was his red hair of course, which was a huge point against him. _Can Japanese people even __**have**__ red hair_?

He was so lost in thought, Tsukune didn't even notice where he was going until he started hearing the usual amount of school gossip.

"So did you guys hear the rumors? There's a bunch of other kids saying that there's some new ruler in Demon Realm."

"Yeah I heard there was this big war, and now one guy is the boss of the whole thing."

"I heard it was just a fight between a dozen or so guys, like a tournament or something."

"What are you stupid? No way something like that would have worked. If the fights were one at a time it would've taken years."

Tsukune looked over to the small crowd quizzically. _What in the heck is the Demon Realm_? _I guess it just shows I've still got a lot to learn about monsters_. But considering that the school was actually meant to teach monsters about humans, Tsukune had a feeling he couldn't just go asking around. It would be like a human asking what the colors on a stoplight meant.

"So what's going to happen now? If one guy's calling the shots isn't that-one hot girl!"

The new gossip quickly switched to the old lecherous comments, questions, and jeers, causing Tsukune to look around to find who was the new topic of conversation. He just looked to where everyone else was staring, and sighed. _I should have guessed_.

The center of attention was one Moka Akashiya, an impossibly cute girl with pink hair, a perfectly proportioned curvy body, and cheerful innocent demeanor that made any guy in sight of her fall in love. Even now, after spending a whole year with her, Tsukune had trouble comprehending the fact she was also a vampire. Of course if the cross she wore on her choker was removed her personality would do a complete 180 into something more deserving of a scary monster, but at the moment she looked like an impossibly cute human girl.

"Tsukune!" the impossibly cute girl yelled before she ran up to the boy and latched onto him. "I missed you so much."

The new attitude made Tsukune blush. "Well Moka-"

"It's been so hard to get a good meal since school let out," she said before biting down on his neck.

_Then again, when she does this, it gets much easier to think of her as a vampire_.

-Meanwhile-

Kurama snatched the letter addressed to him that was tapped to the from of his dorm room, and checked it for dangerous wards before opening the envelope. He took a second to read the instructions, then dropped off his stuff and headed to the chairman's office.

When he arrived at the location mentioned in the letter, Kurama was struck by a strange sense of foreboding. It wasn't the Halloween décor, that stuff was scattered all around campus. It did have him wondering why a school that was supposed to help demons fit into human society was given such an _in_human atmosphere though.

On closer inspection of the area, Kurama managed to pin down the source of the energy that was rubbing him the wrong way. It was imbedded in the walls. _Numerous magic circles have been drawn throughout this portion of the school. Defenses, traps, barriers. So, this is most likely also the chairman's main powerbase_.

It was nice change that he didn't have to track the man back to some secret lair. Kurama took a moment to prepare, then moved through the rather elaborate entry room and stepped inside the man's office.

As soon as Kurama entered, the chairman looked up from his desk and smiled. "Ah Mr. Minamino, please sit down, there are some things we need to sort out before you can be properly enrolled at the academy."

It was the same man he had met on the subway, the one who'd given him the information about Yokai academy. _It would seem I've made a slight miscalculation_. He had thought the demon from the subway to be a simple messenger. Now that he stood within the man's office and felt his unrestrained aura, Kurama could tell the man in white had been suppressing it on the train.

Kurama looked at the chair, then back to the man. For now, he supposed he should simply play along. "After such a long bus ride, I'd prefer to stand, thank you."

The chairman nodded. "Very well. It's a matter of your classes. Apparently you took a great deal of extra courses while at your junior high in the Human World."

"That's correct. I don't see why that should be a problem though." With his mother working all the time, Kurama had filled his hours until the school closed down as much as he could as to lessen the amount of housework she would need to do insofar as cleaning up and lower their electricity bills. Although he also did the housekeeping, that only took up so much time; and Kurama had to find other ways to occupy his time.

"It's not a problem per say, but as you know, Yokai Academy was created to simulate the average human high school experience. As such, we do not have some of the accelerated programs that you were enrolled in. To compensate for this, a few of your classes will be at the 2nd year level, although you will still have Freshman homeroom and are expected to be at the welcoming ceremony." The exorcist reached into his desk and pulled out a piece of paper. "Please take a look at this and arrange your schedule accordingly."

Kurama frowned at the man and his seemingly normal request. "Let us drop the pretenses, shall we?" There was no possible way that someone who was able to establish an organization like this one didn't know of Kurama's past, at least as far as his participation in the Dark Tournament, if not his involvement with Yomi. "Why did you invite me here? Tell me the truth, or I will extract it forcibly."

The chairman looked at the demon for a moment, studied him, and finally sighed. "Very well, if you're going to be so direct about it… Tell me, how many demons in this world possess enough power to actually cause a real threat to human life. I'm not talking about on a one on one basis, I'm talking of monsters like the ones that entered that Dark Tournament."

"If your talking about demons in the C-Class range with any real ability, then I would say that the total number of creatures within that category in this world number somewhere around one-hundred to five hundred. D-Class probably number close to ten-thousand, and the rest are E or F, the later of which being only slightly above an average human," Kurama surmised.

The chairman stared at the boy for a moment, then coughed into a fist. "I see…if I might ask, exactly what scale are you using to measure the ranks?"

"At the moment I stand in the upper ranges of the B-Class, if you want to use me as a point of reference," Kurama explained. "Although I do not currently know of any other demons at this level currently existing in the human realm, caution dictates that I must surmise at least a handful exist that try to keep out of the public eye. Now, answer my question and tell me why have you brought me to this place."

The man nodded to himself after a moment. "Different scale it is then…but I digress. The point I am trying to make Mr. Minamino, which I remind you that I explained when we met earlier, is that since humans rule the world and the majority of our kind cannot survive if revealed, then we must learn to co-exist with humans. As such, I founded this academy many years ago in order to teach young monsters how to integrate into human society. An ideal I believe someone like yourself can relate to.

"In all honesty, I'd normally stay the hell away from someone like you. Not only are there scores of demons lying dead at your feet, but your connections with the Spirit World would allow you to easily expose this academy to hostile forces that would demolish it given half the chance. However, last year there were several…difficulties involving numerous factions that wished to undo my work here and came within a hair's breath of succeeding. This led me to believe that someone such as yourself was needed here in order to stop a repeat of last year from occurring."

_Again, I don't sense any deception from him_, Kurama told himself as he mulled over the chairman's proposal. But the idea seemed…to be frank, ludicrous. "And if I refuse?"

"Then I am undone, and this academy falls apart faster than I had anticipated it would," the chairman answered as he put up his hands in a shrug. "All that really changes is the amount of time it takes. Without the aid of several students, I am afraid that my project is doomed to die a slow death. Then we go back to the old days, with demons living apart from humans in fear and vice versa, each ones heroes hunting and killing the others. A sad state of affairs all around.

"To avoid this, I decided to bring in someone such as yourself, who has experience dealing with several different kinds of problems the school has faced, and dilemmas that even I have little experience in dealing with. I know someone with your background would have to think of a world were humans and demons can live together is neither a foolish dream, nor an impossibility."

Kurama ran through the options in front of him, and sighed. He hadn't considered something like this when he had first come to this school. But still, it _was_ a school filled with demons. Even if they were pretending to be humans, that didn't make it so. If it hadn't been for the contact with his human mother, Kurama knew he never would have changed to be the person he was now. More than likely the same would hold true for most of the creatures dwelling here. They were just being taught how to blend in. Which would end up making most of them all the more dangerous.

"Allow me to think over your proposal. I'll have you an answer by the end of the week."

Author's notes: A quick note about the continuality. Currently Yusuke is still in the demon world and will be there for the remainder of the year, while Kuwabara is also just entering high school. Tsukune is starting his second year at Yokai Academy.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Vampire

"Okay, so would someone _please _tell me what all this Demon World gossip is about?" Tsukune asked the four girls standing in front of him. "And for that matter, what the heck do they mean by 'Demon World' I thought you guys were monsters, not aliens!"

Moka, Kurumu, Yukari, and Mizore gave Tsukune a blank stare as the human asked a question equivalent to 'is the sky blue'.

"What do aliens have to do with anything?" Yukari mumbled as she looked at the guy she had a crush on.

"It's…you know…the world were demons come from," Kurumu said, also a bit taken aback by Tsukune's lack of knowledge. How the heck could he _not_ know about the Demon Realm? He lived at a school for monsters! Didn't he ever bother to pick up an ancient history book? Although she never went to the library, the succubus knew there had to be some information on the subject there _somewhere_.

Tsukune let out a frustrated groan. "Well obviously it's that! But would someone please give me a real explanation so I'm not completely lost! If someone wants to talk about it with me in the hallway between classes or something, I think they're going to notice something's up when I don't know jack about the place. And since when the heck did you all come from another planet?"

"If you want to be technical, none of us were actually born in the Demon Realm," Mizore told him. "At least I wasn't. In fact my ancestors came here millennia ago and haven't had contact with the place since."

"Same here," Kurumu said. "Well, except for the contact part. Mom still subscribes to the Makai Monthly. So she gets updates on what's going on back home every now and then."

Yukari put up her hands. "Hey don't look at me, I'm a witch. I don't even think there were witches in the Demon Realm to begin with. But I do know about it, I mean, what monster wouldn't?"

"I'm not too sure myself," Moka admitted. She hadn't heard of any of her extended family living in the demon realm. "About my family I mean, I was born on this world too."

Yukari crossed her arms and looked up in thought for a moment. "Well, considering humans aren't able to survive there, I don't see how a vampire could get around without a food source, so Moka's family is probably in the same boat as mine."

"You know that doesn't exactly answer my question," Tsukune said before looking over to Kurumu. In fact, everyone took the cue from the human and looked over to the succubus.

"Hey, why am I the center of attention all of a sudden?" she asked.

"So you can tell us what's got everyone talking you bimbo!" Yukari shouted.

Kurumu rolled her eyes. I said my _mom_ gets the newspaper, not me. Why the heck would I care about what's going on in another dimension that I've never even been to or ever plan on seeing? That's got nothing to do with me."

"Nice to see someone's as self-absorbed as ever," Mizore told her.

"Can it frosty!" Kurumu shouted as she turned her nails into claws and spread her wings.

"You wanna go?" Mizore said as she created her ice claws.

Before the fight could begin, Moka ran into the middle of the two girls to try and get them to stop, which in turn made them concentrate their aggression on her, which in turn brought Yukari into the mix as she sided with Moka against the other two girls; an alliance that was quickly broken when Mizore froze Kurumu to the ground the second the succubus turned her back on the snow fairy.

As the fight continued, Tsukune hung his head dejectedly. _I see they haven't changed one bit over the break_. From the looks of things, he wouldn't be able to catch the freshman's welcoming ceremony after all.

-Meanwhile at the Entrance Ceremony-

Kurama took his seat and waited for the ceremony to get underway. He had to admit, despite the eccentric atmosphere, the academy did seem to be living up to its promise to create a human experience. Considering the fact that all the students were really demons, and teenage ones at that, it was actually quite orderly.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" a girl's voice echoed in the gymnasium before two students flew into the wall hard enough to put a hole in it. This shattered the illusion of normalcy when instead of running for their lives at such an unexplained event, much of the student body gathered to look at the ensuing chaos.

All of the new students that had gathered for the entrance ceremony looked over to the large dust cloud that had been kicked up by the impact, then over to the person who had caused the disturbance. A young girl in knee socks, a red school uniform (which wasn't in the dress code), and bright orange-red hair was standing in what was left of the front row of folding chairs.

"And if you idiots look at me like that again, I swear you'll get worse, you losers," the girl shouted.

Both the boys slowly got their feet, apparently none the worse for wear apart from some dirty clothes. "You little brat. Just what the heck makes you think you've got anything worth looking at. Get a few more cup sizes before you start thinking your hot enough to even bother checking out," the boy on the right shouted.

The girl's features went from annoyed anger to outright blind rage. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY? You bastards, I'm going to kick both your asses into next week for that!"

_I can see that the headmaster wasn't lying when he said he had discipline problems with this place_, Kurama thought before letting out a sigh.

For a moment he thought about just staying out of it at letting the teacher on stage deal with the situation, but when the two boy's started increasing in size and shredding most of their clothes as their features reverted to their monster forms he knew it wasn't going to happen. In fact the teacher in question was a low-rank cat demon, while the girl had a much larger demonic presence, and the two giants consisted of a red cyclops and a…

"Umm, excuse me a moment," Kurama said as he walked between the three monster and pointed to the monster next to the cyclops that had stitches all over his gray skin and bolts in his next. "Exactly what kind of monster are you?"

"Butt out pal! I'm trying to have my big introductory battle here!" The short redheaded girl shouted.

The monster in question blinked, then looked down to the new pipsqueak. " Don't you read classic literature? I'm a Frankenstein!"

The redheaded girl blinked. "Wait a second, now that he pointed it out, that doesn't make any sense. I thought Frankenstein was the guy who created the monster, not the monster's name."

"Exactly. Not to mention the monster in the Frankenstein book was basically a zombie made from multiple human body parts and brought to life by electricity," Kurama added as he crossed his arm and nodded. "Or a flesh golem if you want to go with the even older legend that many people related to the classic story."

"So?" the Frankenstein monster asked. "You got a thing against classic monsters you old school discriminatory racists!"

The shorter redhead frowned before pointing to herself with a thumb. "Hey I'm a vampire! You don't get more classic that that."

Kurama rolled his eyes. "My point is, if this is a school for teenage monsters, then why should you even be here? Electric zombies are built, not born. Shouldn't you already be a full adult, or something?"

The vampire blinked as a creepy feeling ran up her spine. "Ohmygod! If he's an adult and he was checking me out…doesn't that make him a pedophile?" He _had_ been leering at her.

The cyclops blanched, then slowly backed away from his friend. "Dude…that's gross."

"Well I-" the flesh golem mumbled as he tried to think up a defense against that kind of accusation, but was cut off.

"Then there's the fact that the Frankenstein monster was made by a human," Kurama continued. "So even if you did follow the classic origin story for the type of monster you are, there's no way that you could possibly even know of this school. If you're like Frankenstein's monster, you were created by a human, with only a human's view of the world. Therefore, you shouldn't even know about this school, much less be here at all."

"But…but…but…" the electric zombie said as he tried to come up with a verbal counter, something he was finding that much harder as the cyclops had already deserted him in favor of not being associated with the nonsensical monster.

"OH JUST SHUT UP AND GET LOST ALREADY!" the vampire shouted before she pulled reached up to grab a nearby bat that changed into an oversized mace and jumped up in front of the Frankenstein monster's face to knock him back through the wall and out of sight.

As soon as she landed, the girl turned back to the cyclops. "H-Hey I don't want any part in this," he said before returning to his normal form and running to the back of the gymnasium.

The little vampire sighed. "Well so much for my big entrance." She looked over to Kurama and frowned as she checked him out. "So um, you a first year too?"

"That's right, I'm Shuichi Minamino," Kurama told her with a disarming smile.

For her part, the vampire shrugged. "Kokoa Shuzen." She didn't much care for the guy, but it would have been way too rude to just ignore him after giving introductions.

From her place in front of the assembly, Miss Nekonome crawled out from behind the podium and looked around. "Umm, is it over, meow?"

-And in case any of you were wondering what Tsukune and the others were doing at this time-

Tsukune looked at the chalkboard in front of him that Yukari had pulled out and the three different colored circles with names on them that she was using her wand to point to. "Okay so, there's actually three different dimensions closely tie to one another, the Human, Demon, and Spirit Worlds. The Spirit World is-"

Mizore looked away from the lesson and leaned over to Moka. "Hey, don't you think we should check out all those crashes we're hearing from the gym?"

Moka blinked, then looked over to the source of the disturbance to see a large monster sailing through the air. "Oh, it's just one of those monsters that has a background story that doesn't fit the academy." At least it was taken care of better than last year when that American zombie tried to enroll mid-semester, it took a week to get the smell of rotting human out of the halls.

"Hmm, good hang time for something of that size," Kurumu commented before they watched the flesh golem crash into the ground. "Looks like we've got some pretty strong students if they're already starting crap this early into the year."

Moka sighed dejectedly at prospects of at peaceful year. _And we worked so hard to get everything under control last time too_. Now it looked like there was a whole new batch of trouble that had come in with the new group of 1st year students.

-A little while later in the Freshman Homeroom-

"Hello everyone, I'm Shizuka Nekonome. I'll be your homeroom teacher for your freshman year. Welcome to Yokai Academy," the woman said as she introduced herself and continued on in a cheery tone. "Now, I'm sure you've all been told this, but Yokai Academy was founded in order to teach monsters like all of you to live among humans and coexist with them peacefully!"

She turned around to point to the first rule that had been written up on the board. "So, the first rule of conduct while in school is that you must never change into your monster form," she explained before pointing to the second grouping of rules. "It's also not allowed to tell anyone what your true species is. Because of some problems last year, we've decided to really crack down on violators of this rule. Now, Ms Shuzen-"

Kokoa filched in her seat, then jumped to her feet and slammed her hands down on her desk. "Hey wait a second, I didn't even know about that rule before now. You can't just lock me up for something when I didn't know it was illegal!"

After the girl had finished her tirade, the teacher cleared her throat. "I'm sorry Ms Shuzen, but that is not an acceptable excuse. If you had let the other monsters simply beat you to a bloody pulp and tear you limb from limb like they would a normal human without telling everyone what you were, then you could have avoided detention."

Kokoa frowned. _This is so not fair_! "But-!"

"Excuse me, but are those rules on the broad the only rules when pertaining to hiding our species?" Kurama asked before the girl in front of him could lose her temper and do something violent.

Ms Nekonome nodded and tapped her pointer on the board next to the rules. "That's right."

"So then use of our demonic abilities is allowed, as long as our species remain concealed. Is that correct?" Kurama asked.

"Wellllll," the teacher drawled out before looking over to the board at the rules then back to the student who had asked the question. "_Technically _yes."

"Then there is no reason that Shuzen should be punished if use of her powers isn't against school rules. In fact, I don't see how she can be punished. The rules you stated relate to showing people what we are, and Shuzen never did flash me her fangs."

This time it was the teacher's turn to look confused. "But she told you she was a vampire!"

This of course started the rest of the class that hadn't been within five feet of Kurama and Kokoa during the entrance ceremony or gifted enhanced hearing talking.

"Wait, that little brat's a vampire?"

"Aren't they like some kind of super monsters?"

"Uh…shouldn't she still be asleep then? Or on fire or something? She's sitting right by the window for crying out loud!"

Kokoa frowned at the last comment and spun around to face the idiot who obvious knew nothing about her great and powerful race. "That's just a stupid myth invented by those idiot humans in Hollywood! Get your facts straight dumbass!"

Ignoring the rest of the classroom, Kurama continued his debate with the teacher. "While she did mention her species, I would like to point out that several humans in the outside world also claim to be vampires."

"_Seriously_?" Kokoa mumbled. Humans were walking around like imitation vampires? The thought was just…_insulting_. What the hell did a low class species like humans think they were doing trying to copy her race? _They probably got it all wrong too_!

"So in her defense, Shuzen could simply claim she was perfecting her human persona as a vampire otaku," Kurama finished.

"But she sent a student flying through a wall!"

"Which isn't against the rules," Kurama countered in his usual calm voice. "If anything, Shuzen should be commended, as her human identity is allowed some leeway in its actions as being a member of the vampire-wannabe sub culture allows her to participate in acts that would otherwise cause suspicion, such as drinking blood."

The teacher shrunk back a little. "Be that as it may-it's still…well…the rules-"

Kokoa jumped up on top of her desk and crossed her arms before closing her eyes and nodding her head in agreement with Shuichi's arguments. "The rules say we're supposed to act human, and I was just copying those lousy humans who _say_ they're vampires. And let's face it, who can blame them we're-I mean _they_ are the most awesome of all monsters."

"Hey I second that!"

"Woooo Go Kokoa alright, strike a pose!"

Kokoa smirked at the comments of everyone acknowledging her greatness.

"They're so white!"

_Okay, that one was a little weird_, she thought to herself.

"You do know everyone can see your underwear when you stand on top of the desk like that, right?" Kurama asked.

Kokoa opened her eyes to look around at the rest of the class, all except one of whom was looking up her skirt, with a few truly incompetent fools actually having the nerve to take pictures. Embarrassment alone kept her from sending everyone else in the room to the hospital as she tried to pull down on a skirt that was way too short before jumping back down into her seat.

"Hey wait a minute, what about me?" the cyclops from the welcoming ceremony said as he closed one eye. "I'm a cyclops otaku!"

"Well you did break the rules by throwing off your human disguise. Besides, since there isn't a cyclops infatuated subculture in human society, the whole otaku defense won't really work for you," the teacher explained.

"SO KEEP YOU MOUTH SHUT PERVERT!" Kokoa shouted before grabbing the vampire bat on her shoulder and turning it into an instrument of extreme pain to threaten the one-eyed imbecile.

The rest of the class passed without any incident. Fear of embarrassment kept Kokoa in check from creating another outburst, and fear of Kokoa kept everyone else from doing anything to interrupt class and draw the attention of the irate vampire that looked ready to explode at a moments notice. When the bell finally rang, Kurama got up to leave, only to be stopped when Kokoa reached out to grab his arm. "Hey um, it's Shuichi, right?"

"That's right. Did you need something?" Kurama asked politely as he could before looking down at his hand. The girl had a grip like a vice. _Not surprising really. If I remember correctly, one of the vampires natural talents is to transform their demonic aura into physical strength on a subconscious level._

"Well since fist years get the rest of the day off and you seem to be one of those big nerdy types, you probably know where everything is by now, right? Can you can help me with something? I'm trying to find-" Kokoa said.

Kurama put his free hand up to signal the girl to stop where she was. "Well actually I do have other classes today. I was in an advanced placement program at my junior high in the Human World, so a few of my classes are in the second year grouping. I need to-"

"You've got classes with second years?" Kokoa suddenly asked, cutting Kurama off and pulling him down so they were eye level. "Great! Then you can help me find my big sister! She's a second year student here."

"Well if you just tell me her name, I can give her a message to meet you some-"

"NO!" Kokoa shouted, apparently fearful of that option. "If you tell her I'm here she'll just run away again before I can fight her!"

Now completely lost, Kurama just let her go on as he tried to figure out what was running through the girl's mind.

"Oh I know," she grabbed the bat on her shoulder and then handed it over to Kurama. "Take Ko-chan here and send him to get me when-" and stopped when the transforming weapon/familiar slipped out of his grasp and dropped to the floor, creating a hole in the wood.

Kokoa frowned, then looked up to the other redhead. "Wow you're pretty weak huh?"

"Physical strength isn't my forte," Kurama told her before looking at the creature on the ground. _The creature must weight over 200lbs. It must not be able to shift its weight despite what form its in_. Although that didn't explain how it could fly with normal bat wings, or how Kokoa's chair didn't break when it sat on her shoulder all day. "And can you let go now?"

Kokoa blinked, then looked down at the boy's twisted wrist. "Uh…sorry. From the way you just jumped between me and those other guys, I thought you were at least an A-Class monster or something."

Not to be put off by such a minor setback, Kokoa quickly formulated a new plan. "Okay then just lead me to your next class, and when my sister shows up, I'll jump her!" The girl's eyes took on an evil gleam as she pictured what would happen soon. With her older sister cornered in a classroom, there was no way she'd be able to weasel out of a fight this time!

_I'd always assumed that the rumors about vampires being overly aggressive was just hearsay, but seeing the way this little girl talks about harming her family, I can see that they might have actually been understated_, Kurama thought as a drop of sweat fell down the back of his head. "Don't you think that'll get us both in trouble if I led you somewhere to instigate a fight?"

Kokoa took a second to glare at the demon, then let out a sigh. "Yeah, I suppose since you got me out of detention, or whatever this place does to disobedient students, it wouldn't be right for me to get you in trouble less than an hour later…"

She studied Kurama for a moment, then nodded "So it's plan C!"

"I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?" he asked behind Kokoa while his shoulders slumped even more.

Only to be completely ignored as Kokoa continued on. "You're one of those pretty boys, so you should be able to pick up a ditzy airhead like _that_ girl no problem. Get her to come to the cafeteria at lunch time, and I'll take it from there!"

Kurama sighed. "No offense Shuzen-"

"No need for the formalities, call me Kokoa," the girl told him. "A minion and his boss should at least be on a first name basis."

"_Minion_?" Kurama growled, his usual cheerful/clam façade cracking.

This went unnoticed by Kokoa. "Well yeah. You're pretty wimpy but you're smart, and apparently not as perverted as everyone else in this school is," Kokoa told him, remembering that he was the only guy in he room not looking at her underwear despite the fact he was sitting right behind her and had the best view. "So you help me, and I'll protect you from all this trash when something happens. Deal?"

The offer was an intriguing one. From the fact that the upperclassmen had been gathering en mass and cheering on the girl and cyclops when the fight broke out at the welcoming ceremony, Kurama could safely guess that fights between students using their supernatural abilities happened quite often. After realizing that, he had decided to avoid making himself a target by repressing his aura as much as possible, and making it a point to simply avoid the more violent students around campus while he was here.

But here was the most violent student in the 1st year class that he had seen so far, and she had already taken an interest in him. Kurama supposed he could force her to leave him alone, but there was always the possibility that she would come back wanting another fight. Killing her was an option too, but that would involve its own problems. Kurama would probably have to get rid of he older sister as well, and any followers that vampire had, as well as the rest of the coven that the vampires belonged to in order to ensure another sister/brother/cousin didn't show up to take their revenge who knew how many years later.

Finally making his decision, Kurama opened his mouth to tell her no and just take whatever beating she dished out, but was stopped before he could even begin by the sound of the tardy bell.

"Opps. Sorry I held you up Shuichi," Kokoa said before retrieving her bat and bag. "Remember, lunchtime at the cafeteria. Don't be late!"

_Well, at least my next couple of classes will be more behaved_, Kurama told himself. If this place really was supposed to teach demons to curb their more violent tendencies, the 2nd years should at least act like normal humans.

After a quick walk through the halls filled with free 1st years, Kurama made it into the deserted hallways of the second year classrooms before eventually finding the right room.

"K-Kurumu what're you doing!" a girl shouted.

"We're going to find out whose breasts Tsukune likes best once and for all!"

"H-Hey wait a min-urmh!"

Kurama stepped into the room, and blinked. The classroom was mostly empty. Only ten students occupying desks, three of whom were in a rather compromising position, with a boy having his face being sandwiched between the chests of the two girls.

Then there was the pre-pubescent girl in the witch's hat apparently cheering one of the girls on, which for some reason seemed even more wrong than the scene that looked as if it was going to degrade into something approaching a prono any second.

Not wanting to cause a problem, Kurama creped over to the most normal looking girl in the classroom. She was out of uniform, had purple hair, and was currently playing with a sucker, but even with all that on top of her frozen aura, her normalcy stood head and shoulder's above the others.

"Excuse me, but it's this intro to human political theory?"

Mizore turned to look at the newcomer and shifted her sucker around to talk better. It was a little spooky she hadn't felt him approach. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that, it's rude."

Kurama gave his a disarming smile and offered up his apologies. "Sorry, I guess you could say it's a force of habit. But, about my earlier question…"

"Yeah this is the place," she said before looking back to the boy being crushed between the chests of the blue-haired girl that was obviously the instigator and the pink-haired one that looked uncomfortable with the whole thing. "Hey, I think Tsukune's passed out guys."

The girl with the pink hair wrestled out of the other girl's grip and took a step back, at which time Tsukune's head fell onto his desk while blood dribbled out his nose. "Oh no Tsukune! Look what you did Kurumu."

"Me? You're the one who kept trying to pull away and keep Tsukune from making a decision till he ran out of air!"

Kurama could only stare dejectedly at the display before looking over to what was obviously the center of the girl's attention, then turned back to ask the snow demon where the teacher was, only to find her gone.

"Don't worry Tsukune, your little snow bunny will nurse you back to health," she said before sitting in the seat next to the boy and cradling his head in her arms.

_So the first year class has an overly powerful tsundra girl, and the majority of the 2__nd__ year girls are part of a harem_, the reborn fox demon surmised. _Makes me shutter to think what the seniors are like…_

-Meanwhile in a 3rd year class-

"Okay people, come and get them! Freshly developed up close and personal pics of the latest hotties!" Ginei Morioka shouted as he held up numerous pictures of the Freshman class. "Come and get them while they're in stock. Negatives are ten times the normal price!"

-And back to main story-

"So, you lived in the Human World too?" Tsukune asked after a miraculous off screen recovery from near suffocation and introduction were made. Kurama could tell he didn't seem too excited about the prospect of another human society adjusted demon roaming around the academy for some reason.

"That's right, and because of my involvement in several advanced classes and extracurricular activities, the administration here decided to make a few adjustments to my schedule because the academy's classes aren't…well to be quite honest they seem mostly remedial.

"By the way, shouldn't the teacher have shown up by now? And where's the rest of the class?"

The witch Yukari laughed nervously. "Actually this is it. See most of the 2nd year class didn't survive the first year. I mean that in the literal sense, they didn't get held back or anything. There's talk of combining two or three of them to get a full classroom."

"And the rest are probably waiting at the bus stop," Mizore added.

Tsukune blinked, then turned to look at Mizore. "Bus stop? What for?"

"Didn't anyone else notice the sign?" she asked before pointing to the large piece of paper tapped to the front of the chalkboard.

[All 2nd year students are to report to the bus stop for special training for 2nd and 3rd period]

Tsukune didn't like the sound of that at all. Although being injected with Moka's blood had given him supernatural powers, they were unreliable for the most part. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of his vampire strength since before the school closed down last term.

"So…is this some sort of human culture emersion exercise?" Kurama asked. It was the only think that made sense if the school was supposed to teach monsters to blend in with humans.

"Considering that's the most logical thing for the school to do…I sincerely doubt it," Yukari warned him.

With little more in the way of conversation, the students in the classroom headed to the bus stop, which was already packed with the other students from the rest of the 2nd year classes. After being scolded for tardiness, they got onto the bus.

"Ah crap it's Tsukune and his harem!"

Which made Tsukune flinch. _Say what_?

"I thought they were supposed to get their own bus!"

"Okay people, make room unless you want to get hit by frozen crossfire!"

Mizore let out a tiny groan of annoyance. "Hey, my aim's gotten better."

As the last of the 2nd years took their seats, which ended up being a mess since three of the girls wanted to sit next to Tsukune; although Mizore laid claim the seat behind the human boy. In the end Kurumu lost out and ended up in the seat across from Tsukune, Moka, and Yukari.

"Mind if I take the window? The rest of the bus looks a little too cramped," Kurama asked the blue-haired girl.

"Knock yourself out," Kurumu said before grabbing his arm and yanking him into the seat as not to break the line of sight between her and Moka, who she was currently giving the electric glare of death to.

Before the situation could go any further, Kurama tapped the girl sitting next to him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Kurumu broke her gaze away from Moka and turned to look at the new student after settling herself down. "Sure, what you need?" she asked politely.

"One of the 1st year students in my homeroom is looking for her older sister. She didn't give me a picture, or even a description. All I really know is that she's a vampire," Kurama explained.

Kurumu blinked. _Now there's another one_? She could see it in her head, Moka latched onto Tsukune from the left and started sucking his blood, followed by a little mini-Moka jumping onto him from the right and also biting down and drinking until there was nothing left of him but his skin.

"Isn't it against the rules to go around revealing people's monster identities?" Kurumu asked. Everyone did it anyway, but the new kid was really a first year, there was no way he'd know something like that. If there was another vampire around, Kurumu wanted her as far away from Tsukune as possible.

"Well when it comes to your own species, that's not allowed, but there's nothing that says you can't tell what someone else's monster form is," Kurama assured her. Which was true as far as he knew.

Kurumu looked back over to Moka, then over to the redhead. "What's the freshman want with her sister anyway?"

Kurama sighed dejectedly. "To be honest, I think she wants to beat her up. Vampires are known for their violent nature after all. In fact this one seems to try and pick a fight at the drop of a hat."

_Then again_…Kurumu told herself as the scenario in her head changed. The mini-Moka shoved Tsukune aside, then pulled out a giant mallet and hammered the larger Moka into the ground. After which Kurumu came over and comforted Tsukune a few seconds before the scene changed to their wedding.

"Oh. Well, in that case, she's-" Kurumu was cut off when the bus came to a sudden stop and lurched her forward, slamming her face into the next seat before she slumped down onto the floor in a daze.

"Alright class, we're here. Now let's begin the Spring Fruit Hunt!" Ms Nekonome called out from the bus's speaker. "Everyone please assemble outside in an orderly fashion and I'll explain the parameters of the exercise."

While everyone else started to file out of the bus, Kurama looked down at the dazed girl. "Are you alright?" "Yeah, just give me a second," she mumbled before reaching out for help. When she felt someone take her hand and pull her up, Kurumu jumped to her feet and smiled. "Thanks Tsu-oh, it's you."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Kurama deadpanned. "Now about that-"

Apparently the comment went unheard as she quickly shoved him aside and ran out the door. "Tsukune wait up!"

Outside the bus, Tsukune looked around at the forest the bus driver had taken them to. He couldn't see any sort of human co-existence exercise going on around here. If anything, the place looked even more creepy that the academy. Some of the plants didn't even look natural, and he was pretty sure several of the mushrooms had faces that were looking at him.

A second later, Tsukune stumbled forward when something crashed into him behind. The telltale mounds of sweater bulges flanking his head told him who was responsible. "Hey Kurumu."

When the succubus's feet touched ground she adjusted her grip to just latch onto his arm and cradle it between her boobs. "Okay guys back off. You've hard your fun with Tsukune, now it's my turn!"

"Since when do we take turns?" Mizore mumbled. Time with Tsukune was determined by a chaotic system of who could grab and hold onto him for the longest time. _Then again_… Mizore had noticed that he ran to Moka more often than not, so working out a time schedule would probably be more beneficial for her.

"But if we're switching to set time schedule, I call next," she added.

Tsukune raised his hand to try and stop what was sure to soon be an all out brawl. "Um…"

This of course went completely ignored by the other girls, with the possible exception of Moka, as Yukari immediately turned to glare at Mizore. "No way! You already had a turn today! I've still to get my alone time with Tsukune!"

"Time alone with him when he's unconscious shouldn't count," Mizore countered.

"Guys would you please cut it out, I'm trying to listen to the teacher!" Tsukune shouted as he pulled himself away from Kurumu to separate Yukari and Mizore before anything could happen.

All of the girls involved in the fight nervously looked over to Ms Nekonome for a moment then, fell back into line with a quick apology. Once everything was finally calmed down, the teacher pulled out a bull horn and addressed the class. "Alright class. Now that everything's in order, we can begin the fruit hunt. The first student to come back with a live monster dorian will be declared the winner and can share the fruit with anyone he or she chooses for lunch."

"A what?" Tsukune asked, not recognizing the name of the fruit the teacher had mentioned.

"A dorian, it's a rare species of plant usually only found in the Demon World, but looking around here it seems a great deal of this forest's foliage was relocated from there," the new kid Tsukune had seen talking to Kurumu on the bus explained. "The plant itself is actually quite carnivorous, but the fruit that it grows as bait to lure its victims is supposed to be quite delicious. The plant waits underground while it sets a fruit in an area directly above its mouth. When someone moves to pick up the fruit, the plant snaps its jaws shut and devours its prey."

The words 'bait' and 'victims' further crushed Tsukune's spirits. In his mind, he could picture himself picking up a watermelon off the ground before jaws big enough to swallow a compact car shot up from the ground and swallowed him whole. _Maybe I should sit this one out_, he thought.

"Right you are Mr. Minamino," Ms Nekonome said. "Oh, since you're a first year, I'd suggest going with a large group for protection. Actually, I'd recommend that anyone going into the forest have at least 3 other people with them as this exercise can be very dangerous. I hope to see you all upon it's competition…but that's probably not going to happen, we always loose three or four students whenever we do this training exercise."

Off to the side, the girls were having their own conversation…

"Hey guys, I just had a great idea," Kurumu said. "Let's have a contest. First one to grab a dorian fruit gets to have a private lunch with Tsukune. No one else gets to interfere, spy, or butt in."

"So whomever gets a dorian-" Moka began.

"-and brings it back to ms Nekonome"-" Kurumu added.

"-gets a whole lunch period with Tsukune," Mizore finished.

"Sounds good," Yukari agreed. "Although when I win, Moka can sit with us too."

"ALRIGHT LET'S GO!"

Over at the corner where there were talking. Kurama raised an eyebrow as he saw a visible shudder run up Tsukune's spine. "Something wrong?"

_Why is it when all the girls are friendly towards each other, I always get this huge sense of foreboding_? Tsukune wondered. He looked over to the other boy. Since they had both come from the Human World, Tsukune had a sneaking suspicion that Minamino was also a human, but the knowledge of demonic horticulture he'd displayed a minute ago threatened to shoot that theory down.

_Then again_, Tsukune thought as he considered another possibility. _Shuichi could be the Hermione Granger character_… Meaning a nerdy person introduced to a completely foreign atmosphere who overcompensated for their lack of common knowledge of the place with a ridiculous amount of study into everything about it until he became an expert in all of the subjects. There was also the fact Shuichi had long red hair and tried to act a lot older than he really was; two more traits that a HGC carried.

"You want to come with me and the girls?" Tsukune asked. "They're actually pretty tough, so I don't even think you'll need to do much except maybe point out if you see one of those fruit things."

Kurama looked over at the estrogen squad, and raised an eyebrow. Then, he looked back to the human; or at least a creature that was something close to if not part human. The more time he spent around the boy to take in his scent, the more certain of that fact he was. A fact that did peek his curiosity.

"Well, I suppose if you don't mind me not carrying my weight, I could tag along. I'm not very strong you see," Kurama said.

For some reason the thought of another student in this academy being as useless as Tsukune brought tears to the human boy's eyes. "You have no idea how happy it is to hear you say that."

"Oh-kay," Kurama said while a large drop of sweat rolled down the back of his head.

The girl's were also acceptable to the idea…

"If we bring someone to watch over Tsukune…" Mizore said.

"…then we can pay more attention to the forest and find a dorian faster!" Kurumu added.

-And so, an hour later after our band of horny adventurers set out to get some…thing-

Tsukune looked around the forest with a little bit of dread. Considering their contest, at the first sight of the dorian fruit the girls were going to run to grab it, trip over each other, and then start to argue, and-

"I got it!"

"What the, it's over already?" he mumbled.

Tsukune blinked as he looked over his shoulder to see Moka holding a weird-looking cantaloupe-sized melon with…teeth? "Wait a minute, didn't Shuichi say it was some kind of bait for a giant monster plant or something? MOKA LOOK OUT!"

The vampire blinked as she looked over to Tsukune. "What?"

"That's supposed to be some kind of bait or something for a monster!"

Heroically, or foolishly depending on how you looked at it, Tsukune ran over to where the pink-haired vampire was standing to tackle the girl and get her out of the way before the monster underground could…do absolutely nothing.

He blinked, then picked himself up before helping Moka to her feet and glared at Shuichi. "Hey what's the deal? I thought you said this thing was supposed to attack when someone pulled on its fruit."

Yukari tapped her chin in thought. "Actually, that's exactly what they're supposed to do. Weird…maybe we got an old one or something. Or it's not really a dorian?"

"No, that's definitely a dorian," the redhead student said as she walked up to look at it. Then, he knelt down and dug through the dirt a bit with his bear hands. "And the carnivorous plant has been here, you can tell by the composition and texture of the soil. Perhaps it just moved on to find more prey before we arrived. I think they have to detach their fruit to do that."

"But…but that mean Moka wins!" Kurumu shouted. "I got beat by-by wimpy Moka?" Losing to her vampire self was one thing, but wimpy, whiney little miss perfect student Moka?

"Come on Tsukune, let's go show the teacher and go have lunch together!" Moka exclaimed as she grabbed onto the boy and dragged him towards the edge of the woods.

Yukari quickly chased after the couple. "Hey wait up you guys! Come on and share the wealth! Moka, I said I'd share with you if I won, so give me a taste pleeeeeease?"

Kurama looked back at the departing trio, and then over to the other two girls. "And then there were three," he mumbled to himself before stepping back. He thought about heading back as well, but then turned around to look at the other two members of his group. Without knowing their actual combat abilities in a dangerous environment, it was probably better to wait and head out with them. _Then again, the other two girls are also unknowns…and the human had no spiritual power that I can feel_. In the end it cam down to simple numbers.

"Dang," Mizore mumbled as she snapped her fingers. Now she'd have to use binoculars to spy on Tsukune to make sure she wasn't spotted during lunch time. Although, the thought of finding another dorian was tempting… "Hey Kurumu…"

She cut herself off when she saw the girl had sunk to her knees in depression. Apparently she had taken the contest much more seriously than the ice demon had. "Something wrong?"

"Hey Mizore," Kurumu mumbled. "Did you ever call Tsukune over the break?"

The snow fairy blinked, then thought for a few moments. "Not much. I prefer visuals to audio. Why?"

"I called him once over the break, and it was his mom that picked up," Kurumu said as she started her explanation. "When she heard a girl's voice and I said I was one of his friends from school, Tsukune's mother immediately thought I was Moka. Then she went on and on about how upset Tsukune was that he hadn't seen Moka in so long, and how he talked about her all the time, and wished her could see her again. She went on like that for five minutes before I could tell her I wasn't Moka. When I did tell her my name, she had no idea who I was."

Kurumu sat down on the ground a pulled her knees up to her chin. "Before school let out last spring, I had a feeling Tsukune had been getting further and further away from me, that Moka was winning. I mean, thy spent so much time together by the end of the year…but after I called his house; I don't know…maybe I was never really in the running at all.

"So when we all came to school and I saw Tsukune, I resolved myself to ask him about it upfront. This was my chance to finally pin him down and have him make a decision about the three of us."

"Something tells me you already know what you're going to hear."

Both the girls let out a scream, and turned around with their claws extended to see the first year standing behind them a few meters away.

"Oh, you're still here?" Mizore said.

_Geeze, this guy has absolutely zero presence_, Kurumu thought to herself. And just what the hell kind of guy just stood in the background and listened to a girl pour her heart out to one of her best friends? Didn't he understand the meaning of a private moment?

Kurama looked at Kurumu's claws and the tail that had come out from behind her, then up to her eyes. "A succubus, that explains a lot. And considering the grade you're in your, what? Sixteen going on seventeen?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Kurumu demanded before she turned her claws back to normal nails.

"In that case, you should probably forget about Tsukune Aono. His kind isn't right for someone like you."

"Hey pal, don't just show up and start preaching advice like you think you know everything! I-"

Kurama cut her off. "Will wait in the winds for the boy to make a decision until you enter into the young adult stage of your life when your demonic aura needs to attune itself to another person in order to survive. All the meanwhile, he will wait and string you along for as long as he can; although after spending some time with him, I can say this will probably happen because he doesn't want to hurt your feelings rather than it is done out of any need of his for female attention. However, all he is doing is putting you in more danger."

The only thing that pissed Kurumu off even more than the fact that the newbie was interrupting her was the fact that she was afraid he was right. In the time she had known him, Tsukune seemed to do everything he could to try and keep the peace between her, Moka, Yukari, and Mizore. If he actually _did_ tell them that he liked Moka more than any of the others…Kurumu didn't know _what_ would happened. But she knew it wouldn't be good.

"Now, if you actually tell Tsukune this, which I doubt he knows, you might manage to get a serious relationship with him. But, since I take the fact he isn't your mind-controlled slave as a sign you truly care for the boy, such a relationship will only eat away at you in the long run. It may take time, but you will begin to wonder if he is with you only because you'd die without him, and little by little, the connection you require from him will fade."

Kurama turned around to walk away. "Don't be stupid. If you truly think you have a chance, or even if you don't, confront him when we return to the bus and get your answers from him then. If he picks you, then no great harm is done, and if he doesn't then you still have time to find someone else."

Kurumu scowled as she watched the know-it-all walk into the trees. "What the hell do you know?" she screamed before stomping her foot, although she found herself being ignored by the redhead as he vanished from sight.

_Jerk_, Kurumu told herself as she crossed her arms and scowled. Okay, so her biological clock _was_ ticking, but that didn't mean she couldn't get Tsukune to fall in love with her before time ran out.

She looked over to Mizore and scowled. "You know, I didn't hear you talking about how Tsukune isn't really in love with Moka. I'd expect some backup on that topic at least."

"No, I'm pretty sure he loves her…but I have time for him to realize what a bad idea their relationship is," Mizore replied. "Well, more time than you at least." She could wait out a year or two of her fertile years for Tsukune to wake up and see dating a vampire wasn't that good an idea.

"Are you coming?"

Both the girls looked back to where the redhead was standing, and Kurumu stepped forward with an angrily distorted face. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?"

"Well…I don't know if I could survive the trip back to the bus on my own," Kurama lied while giving a fake smile and scratching the back of his head.

"Well you're definitely gonna die if you stand around here!" Kurumu shouted before revealing her wings and taking a swipe at the annoying 1st year with her claws.

Once he had led the girls out of the woods, all the while avoiding Kurumu's attempts to decapitate him, Kurama let the succubus land a good follow-up kick that wouldn't end up impaling him on foot long claws. It apparently satisfied her, as she landed a minute later and walked onto the bus.

Mizore knelt down and poked the boy with one of her ice claws. "Hey, you still alive?" It didn't look like Kurumu kicked him _that_ hard. If anything, it was a little disturbing on how long to took Kurumu to actually hit him considering how angry she was. They trained with one of the fastest monsters alive, so hitting a newbie should have been easy. He wasn't even that fast just…slippery, or something.

"I must admit, dealing with violent girls is a new experience for me," Kurama replied before rolling onto his back and slowly getting up. "I find it somewhat…challenging."

"Well you did tell a succubus to forget about the man she's in love with about twenty minutes after meeting her," Mizore pointed out. "How'd you do that anyway?"

Kurama sighed. "Let's just say I'm good at reading people, and it was easy once I discovered her species. Considering the amount of attention Tsukune gives the other girl in comparison, I'd have to say it's more of an infatuation than an emotion grounded in a serious bond beyond basic friendship. Although, I guess that's what being a teenager is about, learning to identify and deal with those emotions."

"Oh, it almost slipped my mind, but do you know a 2nd year student with the family name Shuzen?" he asked suddenly.

Mizore blinked, then shook her head. She knew everyone of the junior class, well all the ones that were still around after everything that had happened last term, and none of them was named Shuzen. "Why?"

"A girl in the freshman class is looking for her older sister who's a 2nd year here, but I didn't get a photograph or anything, so I only know her species and family name," Kurama explained. "And since Kurumu said that revealing someone else's monster form is against the rules, I can only go with the name."

"Sorry but no. Maybe she got her monster schools confused?" Mizore asked rhetorically. She was a little curious if there _were_ any other monster schools in the world.

After thinking for a few moments, Kurama sighed in defeat. _I can't really think of a better reason myself_. "Well, I suppose it's for the best." If Kokoa found out her sister wasn't here and transferred out, it would defiantly make the 1st year class much more manageable.

"By the way, shouldn't you be catching up with that boy of yours too?"

Mizore took out another sucker and stuck it in her mouth. "I will, I just wanted to make sure that you were alright."

The comment took Kurama a little off guard. "Well, that's a strange sentiment to be hearing from a snow woman. Especially since I doubt you wanted to hear what I said any more than Kurumu did."

Being referred to by her race's old name made her look over to the other boy with a bit of surprise. "Snow _fairy_, there's a difference. And my relationship with Tsukune and the contest the three of us are having over him aside, I'm glad you told Kurumu. She needed to hear what you said." Despite the fact that they were fighting over the same guy, Mizore had to admit that Kurumu was the closest thing she had to a best friend. It was torture to watch her get nowhere with Tsukune every day when Mizore knew that her time was running out, yet continue on a path that was taking her over a cliff.

She wondered if Tsukune even knew about the situation. He did seem to be pretty ignorant when it came to monster customs and biology. But then again, he was a human, so that was probably to be expected. _But if I tell him…how much would that change things_?

Mizore couldn't see Tsukune getting together with Kurumu because of something like that, but she could picture him paying more attention to her to show that he cared about her. If anything, it would make the situation that much worse.

She shook her head to help clear her thoughts, then looked around for Minamino, only to find he was heading back into the woods. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Considering the fact I'll probably have to ride back next to Kurumu and deal with an angry vampire when lunch comes, I think it's better to have a peace offering," he told her after looking back and digging around in his pocket to pull something out she couldn't quite see.

"You're going into that forest alone then?" Mizore asked with a frown. _Wait, vampire_? Why did he want to give Moka a dorian too?

Kurama gave her a little smile. "Come now, you saw from that whole mess with Kurumu that running away from things is my specialty. She'll have me cornered on the bus ride, I'd better have something to calm her down or she might actually kill me. I'll be back in a few minutes."

-Back at the bus-

Ms Nekonome moaned as she watched Moka and Tsukune share the dorian fruit. Well, it was more like she watched Moka eat the fruit while Tsukune gagged on it and the witch behind them jumped up and down begging for a piece. Then the other two girls in the newspaper club showed up to glare at the good time Moka was having.

But that wasn't what had her down. This whole exercise had been conceived to try and get her students to work together and form bonds. Instead the most disruptive group left on campus, as they were the ones that had removed all the other disruptive groups, seemed to have even more infighting than usual.

"You know what really sucks?" Kurumu asked Mizore as they watched the scene play out before them.

"What?"

"I _really_ wanted that dorian too," Kurumu grumbled before one of the fruits came into her field of vision from above her. "What the?" She looked above the fruit with mouths of its own to see someone was holding the thing, then turned around and followed the arm back to its source; which really soured her mood. "Oh, it's you."

"You know, I do believe the terms of your agreement was that whomever takes one of the fruits to the teacher gets to eat lunch with Aono alone. None of you actually specified a time, place, or even if more than one of you can win," he said before pulling out another dorian from behind his back and tossing it to Mizore.

_Holy crap he's right._ Kurumu looked at the fruit longingly, then back to the other one Shuichi was holding, giving it a look of longing. "Hey Minamino… is that one for me?"

"Are you going to be trying to slice me in half on the bus ride back?" he asked.

"Are _you_ going to be getting into my business anymore?" Kurumu replied with a frown. "Oh screw it. If leaving you alone for ten minutes gets me time with Tsukune, then it's a good deal." She reached forward and snatched the fruit from his grasp.

With her treasure in hand, she ran forward to reserve her prize. "Hey Tsukune, you want to set up a lunch date with me to-WHAT THE HELL?"

Kurumu stared as she saw the love of her life laying on his knees, and gagging with half a dorian that had only a small nibble removed on the ground next to him.

"Oh, oh God, I think I'm going to die!" Tsukune managed to get out before collapsing face first into the ground.

From her place kneeling next to Tsukune, Moka winced and looked up at Kurumu and Mizore as soon as they dashed over. "Hey guys, I think humans may be allergic to dorians."

"But…but…but I wanted to have dorian for lunch with Tsukune tomorrow!" Kurumu cried while her dream of a peaceful lunch with Tsukune and no interruptions shattered like glass.

Mizore patted the crying succubus on the back, sympathizing with her pain. _To be honest, now I'm kind of glad I didn't win_, she thought. It was hard enough getting some alone time with Tsukune, and if it went badly it would only help to push him towards Moka even more than he already was.

"Should we get a doctor or something?" Mizore asked.

Moka thumped Tsukune on the back to try and get him to cough up the bite of fruit that he swallowed. "Yukari went to get he bus driver. I think he has some medical training."

So the great fruit hunt came to less than spectacular conclusion. Although there were no fatalities, the results were less than spectacular. The group that probably needed the cooperation training the most only ended up fracturing further apart; and the one thing holding them together, or being the main cause of their division depending on how you looked at it, getting food poisoning.

Once he had been checked over by the bus driver, Tsukune was loaded onto the bus and everything else was packed up to head back to Yokai Academy. The only good thing about the incident was that with the object of their affections ill, none of the girls had the spirit to be fighting over him.

When they finally got back to the school, Tsukune was carried out of the bus on a stretcher while the girls surrounded him.

"Guys, I think I'm over the food poisoning now, it really wasn't all that bad, you didn't have to tie me down on this thing," Tsukune said as Ms Nekonome and the driver carried him out of the bus. Although, his feet _were _still numb, so maybe the stretcher wasn't that bad an idea.

Crushed by the guilt of being the one to feed him the demon fruit, Moka completely ignored his attempts to make her feel better. "I'm so sorry Tsukune, I didn't you were allergic to dorians!"

The rest of the girls had other things on their minds than regret through…

Mizore covered his forehead with her palm. "You need to keep your temperature down Tsukune." If she could sneak back into the nurses office after the school doctor kicked everyone out, this was a perfect opportunity for some real alone time with the human boy.

"Don't worry Tsukune, I'll cook you something eatable as soon as we get you into the nurses office!" Kurumu promised. At the very least, she could show off her domestic skills, as well as knowledge of human preferences at least insofar as things that wouldn't lay him up in bed. All in all, Kurumu thought she might just be able to turn this whole mess to her advantage.

For her part, Yukari was already devising plans to fix this and other demonic cuisine related problems. _I could cast Tsukune's stomach in iron…no that's a major operation. I supposed a stomach pump spell might work, but there are some pretty expensive ingredients when it comes to the rituals involved…_

Then there was the other female lead in the story, although she had no idea who Tsukune Aono was, and had been waiting at the bus stop for a good half an hour before it finally showed up for a reason completely unrelated to him…

Kokoa Shuzen's mouth twisted into a predatory smile as she watched the pink-haired bimbo that dared to refer to herself as Kokoa's older sister come off the bus. Although she had originally planned on having her minion bring that pink-haired idiot to the cafeteria, after Shuichi had left, Kokoa realized that she hadn't told him anything about her sister so that he could pick her out.

But if all the 2nd year students would be in one place, Kokoa didn't need anyone to lure Moka anywhere.

"Finally, I've found you big sister. Now, I'll get that damn rosary off, and it'll be time for our final showdown!"

Wanting a dramatic entrance, she stood at the across the road from the bus and crossed her arms while the wind blew her hair sideways in a dramatic style…only to be completely ignored by Moka, whose attention was all on some stupid guy on a stretcher.

"H-HEY! AREN'T YOU GOING TO PAY EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF ATTENTION TO ME HERE?"Kokoa shouted before her sister could get out of earshot.

The familiar voice brought Moka out of her constant panicked apology, and she looked behind her to see someone that Moka thought she had managed to ditch a year ago. "K-Kokoa? What're you doing here?"

"Umm, who's that?" Mizore asked.

Moka looked over to her friend a little hesitantly; knowing what kind of reaction this would cause from everyone. "Well…she's my little sister."

On the other side of Tsukune's stretcher, Kurumu pounded her fist into her palm. "Oh right Moka, I forgot to tell you, Shuichi said that he ran into a vampire in the 1st year class looking for her older sister. With the fruit hunt and all, it kind of slipped my mind. Since you're the only other vampire here, I thought she was yours." There was something else she needed to tell Moka too, but she just couldn't remember it.

Kokoa reached up to grab her bat familiar and transformed it into its giant mace form before she charged at Moka with lighting fast speed. "Moka, this is the day you disappear forever!"

"That's it!" Kurumu exclaimed, snapping her fingers as she did. "Be careful, I think she wants to kill you…or at least inflict some major bodily harm."

"Gee…thanks for the warning Kurumu," Moka deadpanned.

With the new redhead charging at their group and him being stuck on a stretcher, Tsukune reached out to grab Moka's rosary. Usually he'd demand to know what was going on, try and talk some sense into the girl a few times, and probably take several days to work through the problem. However, as he could no longer feel his legs, Tsukune really didn't think he had time to go through all of that before his heart stopped beating from what seemed to be a bit more than just food poisoning. "Can you please make this quick Other-Moka, I think I'm gonna die soon," he told her before pulling off the magical jewelry.

With Tsukune's job done, Mizore pushed Ms Nekonome to get her moving again and away from Moka. "Okay time for the big fight scene, everybody clear the area."

A second after her rosary was removed the seal holding back her powers was released, a wave of demonic energy poured out of Moka, completely obscuring her body. When it finally coalesced back into her body, her hair had changed to a silvery-white color, and her friendly green eyes had changed from green to red.

Kokoa, who had stopped her charge when she saw Moka's transformation, readjusted the grip on her weapon and gathered herself. This was not something she had been expecting despite the fact that it _was_ what she had been hoping for.

Whenever Kokoa had managed to track Moka down before, the older vampire had always been cheery, nice, and a total wimp with no power whatsoever. Despite Kokoa's attempts to remove Moka's seal after catching her one time and failing to pull the damn thing off herself, she had reasoned that Moka was the only one who could remove it. So she cornered her sister at every opportunity to try and make her remove the seal, only to have Moka get away or do something happen to make Kokoa stop her attack like running into a human crowd.

Now, after waiting a year so she could actually get in this place, she had finally tracked Moka down and in less than ten seconds the older vampire's powers were unsealed by some guy she didn't even know. A million questions ran through Kokoa's mind as she wondered just how some guy casually removed the rosary. Something Kokoa had tried everything from her own vampire strength to a blowtorch to get off.

Was he some kind of super powerful monster?

Could the rosary only be removed by men?

Was it basically some cheap trick like the rings in that magic kit her 2nd oldest sister had gotten Kokoa when she was five that caused her to go into such a rage when she couldn't figure out how half the gimmicks worked that she destroyed a good fourth of the family summer home?

_Well whatever, long as I can finally go a round with my big sister_, Kokoa told herself.

Kokoa restarted her assault and jumped above Moka to close the final few meters. "Sister, today's the day I finally beat-oomph!"

"You're still leaving yourself wide open whenever you make an attack I see," Moka told her sister in a much more even tone than her usual cheery voice.

Before Kokoa even hit the ground, Moka charged and positioned herself above Kokoa a second after she landed flat on her back. "You know if you really wanted to beat me…"

Moka paused to raise her leg for an axe kick. "You really should have been training in that year we were separated," she finished before laying another blow to her sister's abdomen to knock the wind out of her.

From his place by the bus where he had watched the exchange, Kurama looked at the change in the girl and frowned. With her seal removed, Moka's demonic aura went from practically nothing to the strongest aura he had felt since coming to this place. Her demeanor underwent an obvious shift as well, something Kurama reasoned might be very much like what happened to his own personality whenever he let loose too much of his own demonic power.

_Odd_, Kurama thought as he examined Moka's aura. Although he had never met a vampire before since the Demon Realm didn't provide anything in the way of human blood for them to feed off of, it seemed strange that there was such a large difference between the amount of power Moka and Kokoa possessed when they were only one year apart.

Was the older sister simply gifted, or was Kokoa's growth stunted? He supposed either would explain the resentment she felt towards Moka that fueled her desire to trounce the older vampire.

As Kurama continued his thought, the fight went on down below with Moka continuing to have the upper hand…

"Now I really need-" WHAM!

"-to catch up with Tsukune-" POW!

"-and get my rosary back-" CRACK!

"-so STAY DOWN DAMNIT!" BAM! CRUCH! ZORT! AND OTHER 1960s BATMAN SOUND EFFECTS!

-Several hours later-

Kokoa opened her eyes and rubbed her head. "Ow what hit me?"

"Size seven shoes, although I think Moka used your own weapon the last few times to beat you into unconsciousness," an even voice from beside her spoke.

Kokoa looked over to see her minion sitting beside her bed, then noticed she was laying in the school's nurse's office behind a privacy curtain that hid everything but the half a dozen beds in their corner of the room. Ko was in the next bed over with his head also wrapped in bandages, apparently given a concussion from Moka using him to beat Kokoa senseless. "How did I…"

"I carried you here when your sister ran off after her friends and left you laying in a small crater next to the bus stop. From the looks of things, you didn't take any damage that your regeneration abilities can't handle."

_Well duh, I'm a vampire_, she thought with a frown.

Then the part of the stuff Shuichi said that wasn't a direct insult to her powers registered. For a moment Kokoa was worried that he had done something like cop a feel, but then the anger over his lack of faith in her powers died down and she realized he wasn't stupid enough to try something like that. He actually seemed to be pretty squeamish about stuff like that actually, as the two opportunities he'd had to look at her panties before during first period made him look away instead.

"So, have you gotten this whole fighting your sister idea out of your system now?" Kurama asked. As it had been such a one sided fight, he couldn't see her coming back for more any time soon.

Kokoa jumped up onto the bed to glare down at her minion and his lack of faith in her while the other redhead found something on the floor much more interesting to look at. "No way! Now that I can fight my big sister anytime I want I-"

"Oh Kokoa I was so worried!" Moka shouted before she crashed through the privacy screen and hugged her little sister. "When the rosary was put back on and I found out the other me had put you in the nurse's office because she was in such a hurry I just couldn't take it!"

"WHAT THE HELL?" Kokoa yelled. Her sister…her beloved, terrifying, powerful and menacing sister had been replaced by this…_thing_ again! "Hey! What the hell are you doing with that thing on again?"

Moka gripped Kokoa even tighter. "Don't worry Kokoa, I'll never let the other me out whenever you're around again!"

"THE HELL YOU WON'T!" Kokoa screamed before trying to fight her way out of her older sis's hug and failing. Apparently the fight with her older sister had left a little damage she had yet to recover from.

She looked down at her minion, if one of her theories was correct and only boy's could remove the rosary… "Minion, get that thing off her!"

With Moka now hiding the view of Kokoa's underwear, he looked up at the object in question for several seconds. "Hmm, I don't think it's that simple…and would you please stop calling me that?" Despite the fact that Kurama could shrug off more insults than most people, the minion comments were starting to get in his nerves.

Ignoring or letting most of the conversation pass in one ear and out the other, Moka looked back to Kokoa. "You made a friend, and on your first day too? Oh Kokoa I'm so happy for you!" Moka exclaimed before turning to face the other boy. "Please, take good care of my little sister. I know she may seem like a violent maniac, but deep down she's very kind and cheerful. I'll know you'll make each other happy."

"He's not my boyfriend, he's my minion!" Kokoa shouted as flames of anger shot from her mouth. "And don't say we're related! You just share my big sister's body! You're nothing like her."

_You have no idea how right you are girl_. Kurama let the sister drama play out as he continued to examine Moka's rosary. It was more than just something to seal away the girl's power and trim down her hip, fang, and chest measurements. It was very complex, whomever crafted the enchanted cross had to be extremely skilled.

The real question was, why was the vampire wearing the damn thing?

Once Kokoa had finally succeeded in kicking Moka out of the nurse's office, she came back to grab her bat familiar, and looked over to Kurama. "Ah well, come on minions, let's get out of here. The sun's almost set and I still haven't had lunch."

"I thought I said to stop calling me minion," Kurama grumbled.

Kokoa frowned at the other redhead, then crossed her arms. "Feh. Weaker monsters always follow the stronger that's the way of the world! If you don't want to be my minion, then defeat me in-HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"I've been watching over you all day, so I haven't had lunch either," Kurama replied as he headed out the door.

"Hey wait up I'll…let you come with me," Kokoa told him before catching up to the other student.

Kurama didn't pay much attention to Kokoa's attempts to make small talk as he headed out onto the grounds of the school. From what he could see, Yokai Academy hardly seemed like much of a school in the Human World. It didn't seem to actively teach monsters anything except that they should keep a human form for prolonged periods of time. The creatures were powerful and overly violent, and the people in charge employed combat training if the trip into the nearby forest was any indication. The girls would have been fighting for their lives if Kurama hadn't reduced the dorian back to its seed before it could attack.

There were a few things he saw today that needed to be further investigated, but there was no need to wait on setting up the backup plan. Starting tomorrow he would begin to lay the groundwork for a plan that would destroy Yokai Academy.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Club

Hidden behind a barrier, a school dedicated to the education of demons with a curriculum that included lesson on how to fit into human society was preparing to start the second day of its new term. The second day of the new year at Yokai Academy began as any other day in a school filled with monsters, or humans for that matter. People (for a lack of a better word) got up, washed themselves off, put on their faces, and headed out to meet the new day.

This was also the case for the most unusual of the students of the academy to date: the former fox demon Kurama, aka Shuichi Minamino. An ancient and powerful demon who had been killed and reborn in the Human Realm to a single mother, he eventually regained his power and fame, but decided to try and live a human life because of the bonds he had developed over the past fifteen years.

"Hello Shuichi," Tsukune Aono said as he walked past the first year and gave him a friendly wave.

Then there was the other male lead: one Tsukune Aono. A somewhat wimpy and kind of average human that managed to attract a lot of girls out of the fact that he was nice and understanding towards creatures that either sucked his blood or tried to rip him apart at one time or another. Although the fact that he had vampire blood running through his veins given to him by his girlfriend did allow him to survive things that would have otherwise long since died from, and even do something useful from time to time.

The two boys continued down the road until it met up with the path coming from the girl's dormitory.

"Kokoa please stop it, you're messing up my hair!"

"Damnit, where's the stupid break in the link so I can get this thing off and get my big sister back? If it works like those stupid stage magician rings, then all I got to do is line it up right and it'll come off."

The boys sighed as they saw Kokoa holding her older sister Moka in a headlock as she examined the other vampire's rosary.

"You know, seeing this, I have to wonder why Kokoa's powers and violent personality aren't sealed away as well," Tsukune mumbled. If the rosary's purpose was to help Moka fit into society, then it stood to reason that the little sister should also be wearing one.

The mention of being sealed drew Kokoa's attention away from the rosary for a moment, and the looked back to glare at Tsukune. "Are you kidding me? I wouldn't be caught dead with something like that on! Besides, the reason Moka wears this is-"

Everyone blinked when Kokoa stopped mid sentence with her mouth open, then looked down at Moka and the rosary before letting her go. "Whatever, if I fight with big sister now, I'll be late to class. Come on Shuichi, let's get going," said before grabbing her minion's wrist and ran towards the school. Then she stopped for a moment while just barely still in sight. "But I want my real big sister back at lunchtime so we can fight!"

After the redheads had gotten away from everyone, Kurama looked down at Kokoa as she dragged him along. "You know that your ability hasn't increased at all since yesterday. What makes you think that a battle between you and Moka will end any different?" He didn't actually care one way other another, although not having to deal with Kokoa while she was comatose would be a plus. On the other hand, any drawn out battle between the two vampires would inflict a good deal of collateral damage. "And why exactly are you dragging me with you? If you keep this up people are going to start getting the wrong idea about us."

"Feh, I don't expect a weakling like you to understand the bond that we share as vampires and sisters," Kokoa replied. "And what the heck do you mean wrong idea? A minion should always follow his mistress! If someone sees you just wandering around by yourself they'll start thinking I'm negligent or something."

Kurama had to agree with that. The first part anyway, the second just brought up rather scary mental images. He had no idea what was going through the young girl's mind. "Be that as it may, don't you think you should get some kind of combat training before challenging Moka again? If your goal is to defeat her, then it might be a wiser course of action to build up your strength by practicing with another fighter before facing her a second time. As things stand, you'll just end up loosing again."

Kokoa frowned and rubbed her chin to consider the argument. Her minion had a good point. But she had already proven herself the strongest of the freshman class, so who else was there to fight with to get stronger?

Locked in conversation and thought, the two first year students completely missed the change of expression on the face of a Chinese boy with his hair in a long braid as they passed him. "That hair…and those eyes…it can't be…" he mumbled before studying the pair of students, then turned around to head back to the dorms.

Unlike the day before, first period was relatively calm. Without anyone bothering her, Kokoa was surprisingly cheerful and nice to people who didn't antagonize her; of which Kurama was the only one. Her presence also kept everyone else in line mostly thanks to yesterday's incident gave the little vampire more than enough of an excuse to have a short fuse when it came to everyone else. If a human had walked into the classroom, he wouldn't have been able to tell there was anything out of the ordinary at all. Even the second and third periods were seemingly normal human-ish type classes.

Then came the fourth period of the day…

"Why the hell do they have to make us wait ill noon to get food?" Kokoa demanded as she sat down in an unoccupied desk. "Don't they know that some people eat at eleven too?"

"Well, I suppose you could always be like your sister and try to snack off Tsukune," Kurama suggested.

Kokoa resisted the urge to gag. The thought of drinking another monster's blood was just plain gross. Despite Kokoa's love for her older sister, there were limits to what she was willing to accept.

Then Kokoa looked behind her at Shuichi, who was sitting in the same position in relation to her as first period. She frowned, then looked over to the desk on her left at the man sitting there. "Hey…that seat's taken."

"Piss off you little-" Kokoa reached over to grab the back of the other student's chair, then kicked the kid sitting in it out the window. "WHAAAAAAA!"

"Hey Shuichi, sit up next to me. I can't copy off you as easily if you're back there," Kokoa told him.

Kurama raised an eyebrow at the comment. "Did you even read the academic honesty agreement?" he asked.

"Of course I did," Kokoa replied before she proudly straitened her back and crossed her arms. "It only punishes students that get caught cheating. So if we avoid getting caught, it's perfectly legal." After the first day when Shuichi had lawyered his way out of her getting detention, Kokoa had been inspired had done her own checking into the school rules and found some rather obvious loopholes. It just wasn't right to have the minion do all the thinking. People would start wondering if he was the one in charge and she was just some kind of front man.

Not wanting to get onto Kokoa's bad side, Kurama took the seat next to her, then got out his books for basic English. "Why exactly are we learning this anyway? Even if monsters do integrate into human society, none of them are going to be able to get passports for overseas travel." Well Kurama could, but that was thanks to the fact he had been reborn as a human and actually had a legitimate background.

As the two redheads started to get into a debate about the foreign language, something that Kokoa was actually interested in as she had plans to visit Hollywood and Europe in order to straiten out several vampire myths, the Chinese boy Kurama and Kokoa had passed on the road earlier came into the room and locked his eyes on the pair of students.

After taking a moment to regain his composures at seeing his objective, the boy moved in closer and took out a photograph to confirm his target's identity while moving in a circle around the two. When the redhead caught sight of him and looked in the boy's direction, he knew he had found what he was seeking.

"It's is you!" the boy exclaimed. "I never thought I'd find someone like you here, and on my second day too!" He got on his knees and grabbed the redhead's hands. "My name is Fong-Fong Huang. Please Ms Kurama, join my family!"

Everyone in the class froze at hearing the proposal, and slowly turned their attention to the center of the room where Kurama and Kokoa were sitting, with most of the female students commenting on what had just occurred.

"A proposal this early in the year?"

"Wait, Shuichi's a girl?"

""No, it's one of those forbidden romances like they have in the Human World!"

"WRAAAAAAGH!"

Everyone in the room stopped talking when Kokoa flared her aura and picked up her desk like it was a club. "Okay, Shuichi may be prettier than any of the other girls in class, but that doesn't make him a girl!" she shouted before smashing her desk on the top of the Chinese boy, which in turn caused him to let go of the photograph he was holding. "And how could you mistake him for a chick when HE'S WEARING A GUY'S UNIFORM?"

Unnoticed by everyone else, Kurama reached out to snatch the photo before it could get very far by gliding on the wind. He took one look at it, then slipped it into his coat pocket.

With the fight over before it even began, Kurama reached down to grab Fong-Fong's unconscious body and hauled him out the door before sticking his head back in the room to give a quick explanation to keep Kokoa from following him. "Well, I'd better hurry up and wake him up before the teacher gets in. I don't want you getting in trouble for knocking out other students Kokoa."

Kokoa simply glared at Shuichi and put her desk back the way it was and griped to her familiar bat. "Damnit Ko, it makes it really hard to argue with a guy when he's doing stuff in your best interest." Shuichi should have just left the idiot laid out on the floor.

Unless…he really did swing that way…

In her mind, Kokoa pictured the two boys looking at each ether, their mouths getting ever closer as_-Nonononono!_ Kokoa shook her head to clear the image, then wiped away the trickle of blood coming from her nose.

She had seen his reactions to getting a full view of her underwear. Well, he had looked away, sure…_but that just meant he could avoid temptation…and didn't want to get pounded, right?_

…_RIGHT_?

As soon as he was in the bathroom, Kurama touched the wall next to the door and grew several thick vines across the entrance to block anyone from coming in. Without the threat of interruption, grabbed hold of Fong's braid and dumped his head in the toilet. "Wake up."

When the boy's arms started flailing, Kurama left him in the water for a few more seconds, then finally tossed him out of the stall and into the main floor of the bathroom.

After the boy had finished hacking and coughing his airway clear, Kurama let the restraints on his aura free and glared at Fong-Fong before shifting his demeanor from his usual calm and timid to harsh and cold. "How do you know my real name?"

From his place on the floor, Fong-Fong looked up at Kurama and gulped at the menacing aura. "As expected of the legendary Kurama," he said before adjusting himself to a kneeing position. "Pardon my foolishness in misjudging your gender. The tapes of the Dark Tournament that my family acquired were secondhand copies from the Philippines complete with dubbing, and even then they were just the first three-urk!" Fong-Fong managed to get out before his braid was yanked on once again and he was pushed up against the wall.

"You will never mention that within the walls of this academy again," Kurama told him.

Fong-Fong Huang looked out the corner of his eye as the demonic aura behind him filled he room. It was everything he needed to prove he made the correct choice. Despite the redhead's appearance, his demonic aura was massive.

"Nor will you ever reveal any information about my true identity to anyone," Kurama told him. "If you follow these conditions, then I will _not_ kill you in the most painful and time-consuming method at my disposal, understand?"

Fong-Fong gulped, and had to look for his voice for several seconds before he could reply. "Y-Y-Yes sir."

"Good," Kurama said before he backed away from the boy and undid the barrier on the front of the bathroom door so he could leave. He still needed to find out just how much the Chinese boy knew about him, although the photograph of Kurama in the clothes he wore to the Dark Tournament were a dead giveaway as to the how he knew Kurama's identity.

In all honesty, he was surprised that more students hadn't recognized him. _But then again…the number of audience members that actually survived the tournament were pretty slim_.

A few minutes later, Kokoa watched as Shuichi came back into the classroom and sat down next to her. "So, everything go okay?"

Before Shuichi could reply, the Chinese boy from earlier, reappeared and grabbed the redheaded boy's hand while kneeling on one knee. "Forgive my foolishness earlier good sir. _Mr_ Kurama, please join my family," he asked.

Everyone in the classroom went silent again, and before the background chatter about the scene could pick up…

"HE'S A GUY YOU IDIOT!" Kokoa roared as she picked up her desk to slam it into the Chinese boy's head again. While the homosexual was twitching under her desk, the looked back to her minion. "I thought you took care of this guy!"

-And so, a short explanation after Fong-Fong had recovered from his second concussion-

"So wait, you're like the Chinese version of the yakuza?" Kokoa asked the boy.

Fong-Fong forced himself to smile at the rather crude analogy of his noble family. "A triad organization, yes," he corrected. "I was sent to this academy to learn, as well as attempt to recruit any outstanding members of the student body into the family-err organization."

Kokoa raised and eyebrow. "And you choose _Shuichi_?" she asked before looking over to her minion and then back to Fang. "What are you, stupid?" As far as she could see Shuichi had no redeeming qualities as a monster, he was actually pretty pathetic.

"Besides, Shuichi is my minion. I'd be a pretty pathetic master if I let you go running off with my first follower. So you can't have him. Now beat it," Kokoa told the boy as she waved her hands in a dismissal.

Fong-Fong frowned. He didn't understand just why someone as powerful and wise as Kurama would be following a little snot-nosed brat like the one he had attached himself to, but if that was the case…

"Well then Ms Shuzen, I am also offering you membership in my organization as well!" he said. "As a vampire, you would be-"

Kokoa put up a hand to cut him off and looked away. "Forget it."

The quick dismissal caused Fang to collapse onto the ground. "But _why_? We'd give you money, power, men…or women, depending on your sexual preferences! Everything you've ever wanted could be yours!"

"Feh, as if a member of the noble vampire race would ever lower herself to work for such an organization in a full-time basis," Kokoa explained.

Kurama gave Kokoa a skeptical look. "Full time? You can't honestly tell me that you've hired yourself out as a hit man or wet worker." Kokoa seemed much too…loud to be the type of demon that ran around taking care of problems that soft of work called for.

The question made Kokoa shake her head. "Well I've never done that kind of stuff personally, but I do know vampires who have. We _are_ the number one go to species of the underworld after all."

It was then that the teacher finally arrived, cutting all the conversations short and beginning the days lessons. When the class ended, the lunch bell rang to mark the day as half over. This also had special importance for the redheaded vampire of the group.

Kokoa cracked her knuckles. "Now, it's time for my rematch with big sister!"

When a hand gabbed onto her shoulder without a warning, Kokoa's whole body shivered, and she looked back to see Shuichi had stopped her from going forward. _Geeze, this guy really doesn't have any presence whatsoever_, Kokoa thought. Despite the fact she was a vampire, a monster species renowned for their detection abilities, he still laid a hand on her without any warning from her senses. "What?"

"Do you really think that's such a good idea Kokoa?" he asked with a bit of a pleading tone in his voice.

Kokoa glared at Shuichi. "What the heck is that supposed to mean? Of course it is! How am I supposed to beat big sister of I never fight her?"

Kurama nodded to at least pretend to follow the girl's logic, then crossed his arms. "But do you really think you can defeat your older sister with that method? Even if you do increase in power, won't Moka be able to make adjustments to her tactics since she's the only one you'll be going up against? If that happens, you will never be able to defeat her. You're also assuming you're the only one getting stronger when Moka is also still maturing. If she's gaining strength at the same time and the only way you have of gaining fighting experience is fighting her, then isn't the best you can do completely dependent on Moka's abilities?"

As much as she hated to admit it, her minion's logic made a lot of sense. Back when they had lived together, Kokoa had fought Moka every day, and nothing had ever changed. If she was serious about beating her, she knew she had to gain more power faster than Moka if she hoped to take the older vampire in a fight. But how the heck could she at a place where the strongest opponent she could face was Moka herself?

"Okay then smart guy," Kokoa replied sarcastically. "Then just how am I supposed to get stronger if I can't find a strong opponent?"

Anticipating the question, Kurama pulled out a flyer and handed it to Kokoa. "Well, there is going to be a club fair after school today, it's mandatory we join one as part of our education here. If you were to sign up for one of the martial arts clubs, you might find someone that's at your level. Then you can spar with him on a regular basis. At the very least, you'd be able to incorporate a different style of fighting so when you do face your sister in combat, you're chances of caching her off guard would greatly increase, and so would your chance of winning in a fight."

"Well…yeah, I guess you may have something there," Kokoa reluctantly agreed.

Then Kurama laid the final bit of track for guiding Kokoa away from causing a huge mess in the middle of a crowded place like the cafeteria. "Of course to do that, you'd have to stop picking fights with Moka on a daily basis so she can't judge your increase in strength from one day to the next."

Kokoa opened her mouth to tell Shuichi to forget about it, but…maybe it was the way he explained it in that calm and collected voice, or maybe it was the fact that his argument did have a good bit of sense to it, or maybe it was the fact that just kicking him out the window for deterring her war path with logic would be akin to picking on a helpless puppy since they had about the same amount of fighting potential. Whatever the reason, Kokoa found herself agreeing to go along with Shuichi's plan for the time being.

She wanted to see her real sister again, but…she also wanted to finally be able to defeat her sister in combat one day as well; and she wanted the second more than the first. _Fine, I'll give up a little happiness now, for a greater happiness later on_. _But just you wait sister, one day soon, I'll finally catch you_.

-Not that much later in the cafeteria-

Tsukune watched Moka out of the corner of his eye as she sipped her tomato juice and kept glancing in every direction her head could turn to about every three seconds. She had been doing it ever since lunch started, and it was starting to worry him. "Uh, Moka, what are you doing?"

"Kokoa said she'd attack me at lunch," Moka replied as she continued to scan the room franticly. "If she follows her usual patterns, that means she'll come crashing through the walls…unless she comes at me from the ceiling!" Moka looked above her anticipating an attack any second.

For their part, Tsukune and the other girls scooted several centimeters away from the paranoid vampire and kept a look out just in case she was right.

"So uh, is this far enough away to not get caught in the crossfire?" Yukari asked. Since she and the rest of Tsukune's group were usually the cause of the things other people needed to take cover from, she was a little new to the prospect of being a bystander.

Then Kokoa appeared right in front of Moka and the others. The pink-haired vampire let out a scream when she noticed Kokoa had somehow come within striking distance without anyone even noticing.

"Oh crap, she snuck past us by approaching from the crowded exit line where you pick up food!" Kurumu shouted.

"And she disguised her bat by changing it into something that would help her blend in even further!" Mizore exclaimed as she marveled a the girl's hiding in plain sight tactics. As an avid stalker, she could truly appreciate Kokoa's skills on a level none of the others could.

"No Kokoa, don't hit me with that lunch tray! I'm still in my sealed-Wait, lunch tray?"

Everyone blinked as Kokoa cleared her throat and blushed at the embarrassment of having _that_ as a replacement for her sister. "Can we sit down here?" she grumbled before her two classmates walked over to her side.

As Moka was apparently too nervous, or shocked at the offer, Tsukune smiled at the younger vampire. "Sure, any sister of Moka and her friends are more than welcome to join us for lunch. By the way, we didn't get introduced yesterday with me uh, dying from the poison and all, I'm Tsukune Aono."

As he had already introduced himself to Shuichi, and Kokoa didn't see the sense in introducing herself now that she had someone to do it for her. Fong-Fong did respond to the greeting though. "Hello I'm Fong-"

"He's my dog," Kokoa replied before sitting down, her comment drawing everyone else's attention.

The Chinese boy looked over to Kokoa with a frown. "Hey I'm following Kurama around, not you!"

Kokoa nodded before breaking her chopsticks. "And Shuichi is following me around," she explained. _What's with the Kurama name anyway_? "That makes you the minion of my minion, which makes you my dog."

"Sir make her stop," Fong-Fong pleaded as he looked over to Kurama with tears in his eyes.

The former fox demon didn't acknowledge the other man's puppy eyes as he picked at his lunch. "Leave me out of this."

Moka blinked at the exchange. "Wait a minute…if a guys following Shuichi around and calling him special names…does that mean Shuichi…swings the other way?" she asked Tsukune. She had thought having a boy around would help Kokoa mature a bit. He was even a little feminine to match Kokoa's tomboy nature. But if he was…that kind of person…

Kurama's chopsticks snapped as his whole body went ridged from the newest comment about his sexuality.

"I don't know…he is the pretty boy type. So it's possible, I guess," the human said. Then Tsukune looked over at Fong for a moment to study him, and back to Moka. "And the dog is kind of girly-looking too."

All further conversation on the subject was cut off when Kurama slammed his fist down on the stable and stood up to glare at the couple across from him. "FOR THE LAST TIME, I'M NOT GAY!"

Everyone in the lunchroom turned to look at the scene…

"Well with hair and face like that, why would anyone think otherwise?" a girl mumbled.

"Damn, I'm out a weeks lunch money," another guy complained.

Across the room, a guy in a pink coat with the name 'Shuichi fan club president' dropped to his knees ad looked up to the ceiling in despair. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Back at the table where the main and backup cast was sitting, Kurama let out a growl then excused himself to get some more chopsticks. With him gone, Moka moved on to the next pressing question she had on her mind.

"So, Kokoa…not that I'm complaining or anything, but…why exactly aren't you attacking me?" she asked. Moka couldn't remember a time when Kokoa wasn't trying to inflict major bodily harm after she had been sealed. It was a nice change, if a little weird.

The younger vampire scowled at the older vampire, then let out a sigh. "Well, not that it's any of _your_ business, but assuming my big sister can also hear me I'll say it for her benefit. My minion pointed out earlier today that simply fighting big sis is an inefficient and somewhat roundabout way of becoming stronger if I hope to beat the real Moka one day. So, I'm going to set my battles back to once a month while I practice to increase my strength."

Moka blinked at the explanation. "Oh that's…" Actually, she wasn't sure _what_ to make of that. On one hand it showed Shuichi was having somewhat of a positive effect on Kokoa since she was planning for the future and not just living in the moment from one day to the next. On the other hand, it also meant she would become increasingly _dangerous_ to both Mokas' continued wellbeing.

"_She needs a __**real**__ boyfriend_," the inner-Moka told her outside self. It might actually provide her with the distraction to stop pestering her older sister so much.

Kurama returned shortly afterwards and lunch continued on per the norm that was Yokai Academy. More small talk was made, and Kokoa found herself slightly warming up to Mizore, Yukari, and Kurumu mostly due to the fact they were trying to dislodge the hold one Tsukune Aono had on her older sister; even if it was the fake older sister that he was infatuated with.

Which also brought up another topic Kokoa was mildly interested in. She looked over to the boy sitting next to her dear sister's body and frowned. "So Tsukune, just what type of monster are you?" When everyone across from her froze, Kokoa blinked. What was so pause-worthy about wanting to know the species of a guy that her fake sister hung out with so much?

"Oh, well that…uh…" Tsukune stuttered. "Oh tell her Moka, I can't reveal my own species."

"Yeah about that…" Moka paused as she tried to think of a way to divert the question. "Well, I don't want to be rude. You explain it to her Kurumu."

Kurumu blinked, then glared over at Moka. "Wait a minute, are you calling me rude?"

"And obnoxious, sluttish, annoying, clueless-"

"Quiet Ms No Bra, nobody asked you!" the blue haired succubus shouted before reaching around and whacking Yukari upside the head.

"Better untapped potential than those things that can only sag from here on out!" the witch shouted back.

In an attempt to get everyone's attention away from the growing fight, Fong-Fong halfway raised his hand. "Well I'm a Yasha," he said…and was promptly ignored by everyone around him, much to his dismay.

Luckily, lunch period came to an end before the argument could become a real fight, and everyone returned to their normal classes for the rest of the day. When the school day finally ended, all the first year students went out into the halls to see the second and third years had already put on displays for several of their clubs throughout the halls and all around campus.

Not one to be distracted by shiny displays, Kokoa led her group out of the freshman hallways to try and find the most powerful club to train under. Of course, it was hard finding anything in the mass of booths attempting to solicit new members.

"Join the swim club!" a young woman in a bikini said, "now we don't actually eat students!"

"Join the science club!"

"Join the acupuncture club!"

Kurama blinked and looked at that stand for a moment, if just to see its ridiculousness.

"JOIN THE MUMMY CLUB!"

_Now that doesn't make ANY sense_, he thought as they walked past the monsters wrapped with toilet paper.

They were about to leave the main building the lights suddenly went out. After several seconds of students complaining, a spotlight came on to point at a rather normal, yet sturdily constructed booth in the far corner with a curtain in front of the person who was supposed to be manning it.

"Hey there all you guys and ghouls that lust for blood," a disturbingly familiar voice ran out from the PA system. "Do you enjoy seeing blood shed but not being in the thick of things yourself? Do you love to watch the drag down, knock-out brawls that all real monsters know and love?" There was a short pause as a familiar cat/fox hybrid demon girl jumped out from behind the curtain and the lights came back on. "Then come and join the announcers club! We learn to call out play by plays for bloodbaths, bloodspots…or just the morning announcements. But if you've got a charismatic voice, I've got a mike. First ten that sign up get a reserved seat as my co-announcers for some of the fights that are sure to be breaking out around campus this year!"

It took a great deal of effort, but Kurama managed to keep his mouth from falling open. Then he groaned at the new problem staring him in the face, and excused himself from Kokoa and Fong-Fong. "I'll be right back."

"What the-you _can't_ think you're going to sign up for that idiot's club!" Kokoa shouted.

After Kurama managed to get to the booth, he walked past the line of perverted cat girl loving boys and confronted the woman at the table. "Hello Koto."

The announcer from the Dark and Demon Tournaments took another signature and thanked the student for his support before looking over to the human form of a few wet dreams she had during the DT. "Oh hey Kurama, I didn't know you were on staff here too. Let me guess, teaching botany…wait, you're not a groundskeeper or something stupid like that, because a demon with your slaughtering abilities really shouldn't have to stoop as low as me for a job."

Kurama cleared his throat. "Yes well…what are you doing here?" he asked, completely dodging the question.

"Hey girl needs steady employment ya know," she told him. "I'm on staff here as a secretary and announcer for sporting events. This place is pretty much the _only_ place I'm going to see a bloodbath with Demon Realm settling down and everyone's expectations of invasions for Human Realm canceled."

A small ruckus behind him made Kurama look back in time to see Kokoa force her way through the crowd with Fang-Fang in tow. "Okay Shuichi you had enough time to write you name, let's go. We've got a long day of scouting all the martial arts clubs to find out which one has the strongest students in the school."

"Well you're wasting your time looking there if you're trying to find the toughest club in school," Koto commented between taking signatures. "The most powerful group in the school right now is the Newspaper Club."

Kokoa looked over to the hybrid monster and blinked at her nonsensical comment. The only explanation was that she must have heard it wrong "Say what?"

"The Newspaper Club, they're the toughest group in the school right now," Koto repeated. "Last year they kicked out the student police, most of the student council, and the only real gang we have on campus. Least that's what I heard from my cousin before she graduated, but I checked up on things and she was right. Real shame too, I heard they had some real beat down fights, and I missed every one of them."

The completely senselessness of that explanation made Kokoa's head hurt. "How the hell is the _Newspaper_ _Club_ supposed to be tougher than something like the Karate Club?"

Koto shrugged. "Hey don't get me wrong, the Karate Club is supposed to be pretty powerful too. But as to how the Newspaper Club is so great…how should I put it? They usually end up investigating stuff like corruption, gang problems, and other things that gets them thrown into life threatening situations. Then they end up being the ones to solve it."

For a moment Kokoa just stood there, frozen by the explanation that completely ruined her plans for the day. She sighed, and turned around to her minion and the dog. "Okay then, I'm joining the uh, _Newspaper Club_," she said. The words left a bad taste in her mouth.

It was with a great sense of unease that Kokoa made her way to the classroom that held the Yokai Academy's Newspaper Club. It wasn't that she was nervous or anything, but the whole idea of a nerdy club that dealt with newspapers being the strongest group in the school was just…_wrong_.

Then there was the stuff she heard when asking directions to their club room…

"You want to join the newspaper club? You're nuts! One of their members is constantly trying to east some of the others!" a 2nd year boy told her before Kokoa smacked him for his uselessness.

"Little girls shouldn't go there! The male members are the school's biggest pervert and its number one playboy," a girl from the swimming club told her. "If you join you'll either be molested to death or have to be part of a harem!"

"They're secretly harboring a human!" another boy told her.

By the time she had found the place, Kokoa had heard everything imaginable about the Newspaper Club, all of it worse from the last. After taking a second to calm her nerves, she decided to make an entrance to show that she wouldn't be messed with by all the man-eating demons and other terrors that apparently made up the group.

She would climb her way to the top of the strongest and scariest organization in Yokai Academy, and when she was done, she would take the strength she gained from her ordeal and finally defeat her sister.

Kokoa kicked open the door and jumped inside before pointing to the group centered around the table and putting on her scariest face. "OKAY, I'M JOINING THE NEWSPAPER CLUB, AND DON'T NONE OF YOU TRY AND STOP ME!"

Moka, Mizore, Yukari, Kurumu, and Tsukune looked up form their positions around the table in the center of the room.

"Oh Kokoa you want to join the Newspaper Club, that's wonderful!" Moka said before she made a move to hug her sister. "We're going to be in the same club together, I'm so happy!"

_Wha…what the_? Kokoa thought and the thing calling herself Kokoa's sister hugged the shorter vampire to her breasts. It took her a few seconds, but once she had managed to work through the shock, Kokoa threw Moka into a nearby group of tables that had been moved out of the way for the added space. "Just what the hell's going on here? I though the Newspaper Club was supposed to be some kind of seedy, dark organization full of illicit sexual activity and perverts that I'd have to fight off every day just to survive on top of the numerous dangerous situations they'd put me in to report on what happening at this stupid school. SO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING HERE?"

While Tsukune went to check on Moka, the president of the newspaper club got out from behind the desk that he was lounging in while everyone else was trying to put on a presentation to attract more members and slid over to Kurumu. "What does she mean dark and seedy?"

"I'm pretty sure you're the one that gives our club that reputation senpai," the succubus deadpanned as she looked over to Gin, the school's number one male stalker and pervert.

To clear up the confusion, Kurama slipped into the room behind Kokoa and took a look around. "Well Kokoa, the rumors do make a sort of sense. There are several girls, your sister among them, who seem to be fighting over a single boy. Plus there's also a succubus in the club, a race of beings who are known for their illicit sexual activity."

"Hey!" Kurumu shouted at the redhead. This of course caused her to drop her guard next to Gin, and she had to slam her fist into his face to remove his hand from her boobs. "If anyone's responsible to the illicit sexual activity label it's this horny dog!"

Kokoa nodded at Shuichi explanation, completely ignoring Kurumu. "Okay, so what about the cannibalism thing?"

To answer the question, Kurama pointed over to the corner behind Kokoa that she had thrown Moka over to. "Well, while I wouldn't call one species eating another cabalism per say, your sister does seem to be sucking blood out of Tsukune's neck."

Moka flinched as she felt everyone's eyes on her, and turned around to laugh nervously. "Come on guys, when Kokoa sat next to us at lunch I was so nervous I completely lost my apatite, and now I'm really hungry."

For her part, Kokoa flinched at Moka's drinking of another monster's blood. "Okay…what about the rumors they're harboring humans?" Not that Kokoa minded humans, she had lived among them for more than a year when chasing her sister through their world. Except for the fact they got everything about vampires wrong, they didn't seem to be all that bad.

The entire newspaper club froze, each of them sharing nervous looks.

"Ummm, well about that…" Moka said as she trailed off.

"Yeah…that," Kurumu replied.

"It's um….you see, the thing is…" Yukari stuttered.

Gin picked himself up then zipped over to pat Yukari on the head . "Oh, that's just a leftover from when the Enforcers were taken down. You see, they needed some dirt on us so they accused Tsukune of being a human, and things kind of snowballed from there. Some of the old group's leftovers have kept the rumor going though."

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way," Mizore said after she finished putting up the welcoming banner and pulled out a bottle of champagne from behind her back.

Before this travesty could go any further, Kokoa held her arms up in front of her to make a giant X. "Forget it, I'm not joining. Come on guys, let's go join the Karate Club."

"But Kokoa!" Moka protested as she got to her feet and ran after her. "If you join this club, we can spend so much more time together!"

Kokoa ignored her older sister's vessel as she lost herself in thought. _Stupid! Of course any club with big sis in it would be the strongest automatically_, she berated herself. Then there was the disturbing fact that her sister was actually part of a _harem_.

Okay, well it wasn't _that_ disturbing as her own father had more than one wife. But is was supposed to be the stronger monsters that took several weaker ones as mates in order to satiate the desires that a single partner couldn't. If anything, Moka should be the one with multiple-_okay scratch that, the image is even more disturbing, _Kokoa told herself as she pictured her silver-haired sister surrounded by several good looking guys.

A sudden realization hit her, and she spun around to look at Shuichi and Fong-Fong, her two _male_ followers. _Crap! If I don't hurry up and get some female friends, its gonna look like __**I'm**__ collecting a reverse harem_.

Kurama cocked an eyebrow at Kokoa's sudden panicked expression. "Something wrong?"

"Let's just get one thing strait," Kokoa told the two pretty boy's flanking her. "I am in no way trying to pick up a harem!"

Fong-Fong slumped over completely dumbfounded before turning his head to Kurama for clarification of Kokoa's reasoning. "_Huh_?"

Kurama scratched the back of his head. "Don't look at me, even I can't explain that one."

With the hope of any rumors she was trying to collect a myriad of male followers taken care of, Kokoa led them out to the field were most of the martial arts clubs were putting on their displays. There were clubs that specialized in fighting without weapons such as Karate and Jujitsu as well as some foreign fighting styles such as Muay Thai and Wrestling. Then there were the Fencing, Kendo, and other clubs that specialized in weapon combat.

"Well, since Koto said the Karate Club is strong, shall we take a look at them first?" Kurama suggested.

Fong-Fong nervously cleared his throat. "Uh, is this a good time to mention I'm more of a magic combatant type? I summon monsters to fight for me. I don't go on the front lines myself."

Kokoa brushed aside his complaints. "That doesn't matter. You're my dog, so all you'll be expected to do is fetch my towels and mineral water. It's the best role for a background character like you anyway."

_So mean_, the yasha thought to himself as he cried over the casual dismissal of his role and abilities.

It didn't take long to find the Karate Club's booth. Aside from the long line of people wanting to sign up, they also had a display/contest for brick breaking with a seedy-looking second year with a bowl-style haircut along a much creepier and bulkier karate club member running the stand. "STEP RIGHT UP AND JOIN THE KARATE CLUB! New members will also have a chance to participate in a contest to win 50,000 yen! First years only though."

Kokoa jumped to the front of the desk, "Okay, sign me up!" she shouted.

The second year with the Moe-style hairdo took one look at her, and shook his head. "No little girls."

The air around Kokoa started so simmer as the vampire's anger caused her aura to rise and hair to stand on end. "WHAT?"

Despite the rather impressive showing, the man with the Moe haircut held his hand up above Kokoa's head. "Sorry, but club rules stipulate you must be at least this tall to join."

"I really don't think that you can restrict membership into a club based upon a person's height or sex," Kurama told them to keep Kokoa from flying into a killing rage.

The bowl top crossed his arms. "Sorry, but as the club member put in charge of this booth, it's my responsibility to deter anyone who might be a detriment to the club from joining. That includes pre-pubescent girls, and what we're at it, pretty boys."

"Yeah," the larger karate club member said, "Now go play with your dolls and makeup, losers."

This time Kurama didn't distract Kokoa and let the little vampire snap. One cry of outrage and several broken bones later, Kokoa left the two second year students buried under a pile of the gravestones they were using as breaking blocks. "The heck with this club, let's go try Muay Thai," she said.

"C-Captain, help!" the smaller karate club member called out before Kokoa picked up another gravestone and smashed it on his head to knock a few more of the boy's teeth out.

With her job done, the little vampire dusted off her hands and turned around to walk away. Before Kokoa could leave, the feeling of half a dozen decent auras were picked up by her vampire senses. She turned around to face them and frowned at the one in front of the other five. Judging by the size of his aura, the spiky-haired young man was defiantly the leader of the group.

"I'm the Karate Club captain, Haiji Miyamoto," the one Kokoa had singled out said as he stepped forward. "What is going on here?"

"Boss help! That little flat-chested girl beat us up," the Moe complained.

_Oh boy_, Kurama and Fong-Fong both thought before backing away from Kokoa.

Empowered by the fires of righteous female indignation that surrounded her thanks to the stooge's stupid comment, Kokoa grabbed her bat familiar and transformed it into a gigantic hammer. Then she brought the heavy blunt object down on the two beaten second year students. "For you information I have A-Cups, and I'm still growing!"

As it was apparent Kokoa wouldn't be offering any explanations, Kurama looked over to the Karate Club president. "My friend was hoping to join your club, but was turned down by these second years for her height."

"Forget it!" Kokoa shouted as she finished hammering the stooge into the ground. With the idiot taken care of, she morphed her weapon back into a bat and struck a feminine pose. "There's no way I'm joining a club that doesn't appreciate my womanly beauty."

Haiji's eyes took on a gleam as he looked upon Kokoa. "Tiny boobs, shortness, no hips…my dear you are the epitome of female beauty! You must join us, and become the princess of the Karate Club!"

Kokoa felt a shiver run down her spin as she heard him describe her good looks. While she knew she was definitely cute, being thought of in that light by a third year was just plain creepy.

_It actually sounds like_…Kokoa studied at the young man for a moment, then flinched as a small stream of blood started to drip out from his nose. "Oh my God! He's a lolicon!"

Fang-Fang blinked, then looked over to Kurama for an explanation. "What's a lolicon?"

The question made Kurama flinch, and he looked over to glare at Fong for actually asking him to explain something like that. Then he let out a sigh. _This is what I get for being the smart member of the group_. Straitening his back, Kurama crossed his arms and began to explain. "Lolicon, it's a Japanese combo word meant to combine the words 'Lolita' and 'complex'. In Japan, it's meant to describe people with an attraction to underage girls."

With the explanation of just how evil the Karate Club captain was done, Kokoa flared her aura. "You can forget about me joining your stupid club." She pointed o the stooges laying unconscious at her feet. "Those brick braking idiots let me see what you have to offer pervert, and if that's what you get after just a year of training then your club is way too weak to be of any use to me!"

"Ah, so if I can prove you wrong by defeating you, then you'll join the club?" Haiji asked as he stepped forward. "Alright then, I hate to mar such innocent beauty, but this for the future of the Karate Club!"

The captain took up a fighting stance and grinned. "With you as our princess we'll be able to recruit all the freshman. Your beauty will attract demons from across the globe, and the Yokai Academy Karate Club will become the greatest student organization of all time!"

The image in Kokoa's mind of her standing in a princess costume surrounded by lolicon perverts made her want to wretch. It was an image that would haunt her for several nights to come. "There's no way I'm gonna let that happen. You die now!" she shouted before attacking.

Kurama watched the exchange form the sidelines as Kokoa ran in at full speed while Haiji took up a stance that braced his footing, then threw out a punch. "HA! Do you need glasses dumba-" Kokoa's taunt as cut off as some unseen force impacted her stomach and sent the girl flying backwards half a dozen meters.

"Wha-what happened? I didn't even see what hit her!" Fong-Fong yelled.

_This could be a problem_ _for Kokoa_, Kurama told himself. "That's because nothing really did hit her. I've seen a similar technique before. The user concentrates their aura to form an area of compressed air, then expels force behind the air to send it flying out." Although Toguro's was a bit more compact, and much more lethal.

"Hey you're pretty smart kid," Haiji said. "But yeah, that's the basics behind my…" He struck a pose while throwing out his arm. "**Long Distance Fist**!"

Kurama blinked at the sudden change pf voice, and the Japanese letters that appeared beneath the man's attack that bore the techniques name. "So, we're doing that sort of stuff again?"

"Well it is a Yu Yu Hakusho crossover," Fong-Fong pointed out.

Kokoa picked herself up and frowned. "So what if you can punch air? I barely felt that."

In response, Haiji sent out three more punches. The first two struck Kokoa's legs to knock her off balance, and the third knocked her right in the head, bringing her down again. "Okay, now that the novelty has worn off, I'm really starting to get tired of this," she grumbled before getting up.

When Kokoa advanced again, she was able to avoid one of the air punches before being struck on the shoulder by the second. The blow made her spin halfway around, and another attack sent at her legs tripped he girl up and had her fall to her knees. "Cut that out already! You're just wasting your time anyway. These things are more annoying than painful!"

"Oh my, you must be quite strong for my attack to have such a little effect on you," Haiji said before he cracked his knuckles and prepared for another barrage.

This time when Kokoa got up, she managed to avoid three in a row before being taken down. As the fight continued, it became obvious to Kurama that Kokoa wasn't going to win. She might not have been hurt much by Haiji's attacks, but they were serving the purposes of letting him gauge her dodging patterns and reaction time. Plus, all he would have to do was use his attack when Kokoa was just a meter out of range, then move in for a more powerful finishing blow using his physical strength when she was off balance.

_Well, I'm done out here anyway_, he thought to himself before steping on the see he had dropped and forcing it into the ground. He needed to just let Kokoa get beaten, be pressed ganged into the Karate Club, and have it all over and done with.

But…the image it created in his mind gnawed at him for a reason Kurama couldn't quite explain. It wasn't that he was worried about Kokoa. If anything, she was more like some annoyance he had come to discover was more trouble than she was worth. Having her in the Karate Club would also get her out of his hair after classes so he could concentrate on the real reason that he was here for.

On the other hand, Kurama knew he'd be regretting it if she got beaten in a fight when there was something he could do about it. Vampire or not, she _was_ a little girl.

Kurama sighed, then pulled out his notebook to write something in it, then handed it to Fong-Fong to look at.

The yasha read the piece of paper, and followed the instructions. "Oh no," he said as he read from the page in a way that let anyone watching know the Chinese boy had zero acting talent. "What are we going to do? Kokoa is going, to lose the fight, because of the captain's special technique."

Kokoa picked her face out of the mug and glared at Fong. "NO I'M NOT! And as soon as I'm done with this idiot, I'm kicking your ass too just for saying that!"

Fong-Fong flinched at the threat, then hid behind Kurama to get away from Kokoa's glare of death.

"Actually Fong, it should be quite easy for Kokoa to win. She merely needs to exploit the two weaknesses in Captain Haiji's attack," Kurama replied loudly enough to be heard by everyone around him.

"Two?" the karate captain mumbled before he looked over at the redhead.

"What…are…those…Shuichi?" Fang read. "Wow, this handwriting is pretty bad Kurama."

_What do you expect when I have to scribble it down quickly on the back of a notepad with nothing to brace it against_, Kurama thought to himself. "Isn't it obvious? In order to generate enough force to use his attack, the captain has to put his whole body into the throwing of his punches. So, the arc of fire for this attack should only be around forty-five degrees. If Kokoa were to launch an aerial attack, it would completely circumvent Haiji's long-range offense."

Laying in the dirt, Kokoa smirked. She didn't exactly _like_ the idea of taking instructions from one of her cheerleaders, but loosing to someone other than her sister would have sucked even worse. She jumped to her feet, and launched herself into the air as high as she could.

_Heh, shows what you know kid, I can also attack opponents in the air, this technique would be useless if it was beaten so easily_, Haiji thought before he took a stance that would allow him to intercept the girl…and froze at the sight before him. "They're so white."

With her opponent frozen, Kokoa had no trouble bringing a kick down with her full vampire strength and sending the Karate Club captain into the mud. To top it off, distracted as he was Haiji didn't mount a single defensive move or try and strengthen his demonic aura to lessen the blow. The attack knocked him out cold.

"HA! That'll teach you to look at little girls you lolicon pervert!" Kokoa shouted while the rest of the assembled karate club gathered around Haiji to check if he was still alive.

_You have no idea how right you are_, Kurama thought to himself. When the girl had launched herself into the air and started coming down, it had given anyone bothering to look up a perfect view of her underwear. The view easily broke Haiji's concentration, and allowed Kokoa an easy win.

After she dusted herself off and gave a quick win pose to the gathered audience, Kokoa looked back to the karate club and frowned. A sudden realization hit her. "AH CRAP!"

"Something wrong?" Kurama asked.

Kokoa whirled on the other redhead and glared at him. "The whole point in coming out here was to join the strongest martial arts club. There's no way that they'll let me in now! Not to mention if _that's_ the strongest guy in the strongest club, none of the other clubs will even give me enough of a challenge to get stronger!" She pointed at Shuichi. "_You're_ supposed to stop stuff like this from happening. Now what club am I supposed to join?" She'd be lucky if she wasn't black-listed from all the fighting clubs after something like this.

"Well, the Newspaper Club is looking for members," Kurama suggested.

"WHY THE HECK WOULD I WANT TO JOIN THAT CLUB?" Kokoa shouted while flames of righteous anger shot from her mouth.

Kurama made a show of acting like he was thinking hard, then crossed his arms. "You could spend more time with your sister for starters," he told her.

"That pink-haired wuss is not my sister!" Kokoa replied. "My sister is dark, and scary, and has a bigger cup size!"

When she was done with her putdown of the pink Moka, Kurama nodded. "True, but from what I saw when you fought her after coming here, at least one of the Newspaper Club can undo the seal on your sister's powers and personality." When Kokoa nodded as that point got across to her, Kurama gave her the second point that would probably move her. "Then there's the kind of things the Newspaper Club does. Remember what Koto said? Due to their investigations, they are constantly putting themselves in harms way and getting into life or death situations that test their combat abilities beyond what simple training can do. Of course there's greater risk involved, but the rewards are obvious."

-Meanwhile in the Newspaper Club room-

Tsukune tried to keep a strait face as he watched at the girls look themselves over after they had changed into cheerleader uniforms with the words 'Newspaper Club' written across their chests. He looked over to the seat next to him at Gin. "Do you seriously think this is going to attract the kind of members we need?"

The club president blinked, then slowly turned away from the magnificent sight in front of him to the much more depressing one of a guy in normal school clothes. "As much as I'd like to take credit for this genius, it wasn't me who came up with it."

"That was me!" Ms Nekonome, the Newspaper Club's sponsor said as she came into the room. Like the rest of the girls, she was also dressed in a cheerleader outfit.

Tsukune sweated as he looked at the cat girl. "Uh, it's it even appropriate for a member of the faculty to be wearing something like that?"

"Quiet you!" the teacher ordered before turning to the girls. "Alright, since today is the club fair and we actually have enough members to enact a recruitment strategy this year, the girls and I will head out to scout for new members. When we find someone interested in joining, we'll point them in the direction of the club room while you boys stay here and take the information of anyone who wants to join down. We'll beat all those other clubs and their fancy booths with mobility and eye candy! Now let's go girls."

As the girls started to leave, Tsukune raised his hand to ask a question. "Wait a minute, that'll just fill the staff up with a lot of horny guys! What about new female members?"

Ms Nekonome sighed. "With you and Gin as members, I don't think any girls are going to want to join the club."

Tsukune looked at the woman like she was crazy. He understood why girls wouldn't want to be in the same club as _Gin_, but Tsukune didn't know of any reason why girls wouldn't want to be around him. He had three too many trying to be his girlfriend already!

As if to prove Ms Nekonome's point, two freshman girls choose then to walk into the clubroom. "Hey is this the newspaper club? We'd like to join."

"Certainly, just go and sign up at the desk where Mr Aono and Mr Morioka are sitting," Ms Nekonome told the girls while directing them towards the two boys with her hands.

"Wait, G-Gin Morioka?" the first girl said as she jumped back in fear. "He's the fastest pervert in Japan! They say by the time you actually feel him grope you, you're already carrying his child!"

Gin whined at the accusation. _That's a bit much girls…_

Tsukune chuckled and looked down at his sempai. "Well Gin it looks like your reputation has proceeded you," he said before turning to the girls. "But he's really not all that-"

"EEEEEEK!" the second girl shrieked as she covered her ears. "Somebody stop him! They say if a girl listens to Tsukune Aono for more two minutes, he'll be able to seduce you so well you'll be willing to join his private harem!"

The 'harem' looked at one another for a moment. "Actually…that one is kind of true," Yukari admitted.

"We're too young to lose our innocence!" the girls shouted as they made a beeline for the door.

When the girls were gone, Ms Nekonome cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "So like I said, we'll be focusing mostly on recruiting more guys with eye candy. Most of the freshmen probably don't even know whose in Tsukune's harem yet, so we can sucker in a good number of recruits that way."

"We are not a harem!" Moka shouted, then blinked when hers was the only voice that objected to the label. She looked back to see the rest of the girls talking amongst themselves.

"Now that I think about it, it does make a kind of sense to pool our resources," Yukari said.

Mizore nodded. "I have to admit, fulfilling all of Tsukune's needs as a wife beyond the house and bedroom would be a little difficult considering my shyness in public."

The thought appealed to Kurumu as well. "It would be nice to have some help with the cooking and housework."

Moka gaped at the conversation going on between the other girls. "Are you kidding me? What kind of self respecting person engages in polygamy?"

"_Didn't Dad have three wives_?" the inner-Moka asked as she remembered the numerous mothers of her sisters and herself.

"Don't you turn against me too," the vampire shouted at her rosary. She looked up at Tsukune and waved her arms in comic anger. "Don't you have anything to say?"

Tsukune flinched as all the girls turned to look at him. "W-What?" he squeaked out. What in the hell was Moka doing drawing him into a conversation like _this_?

The other three girls came over to him, followed quickly by Moka.

"Tsukune make them stop!" the vampire pleaded. "This is wrong!"

Kurumu slid behind Tsukune to grab onto him and hold his head to her chest. "Come on Tsukune think about it. Hell, even if you ran off to live with Moka, you'd still have two girlfriends thanks to her split personality. What's two more with me and Mizore?"

On the other side of the table, Yukari frowned. "Hey! What do you mean _two_ more Kurumu?"

The succubus rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Yukari, you've got a few years before you can hang out with Tsukune alone in public without him risking jail time or something." And hopefully by then her stupid little crush would be over, or at least refocused on someone else so Kurumu wouldn't have to deal with the little witch.

"Would you guys cut it out with the polygamy talk!" Moka yelled.

Mizore looked over to Moka. "Well it's not exactly like we're not willing to include you in the harem. We may be learning to fit into human society, but that doesn't mean that we have to follow the human norms all the time." She looked back to her future husband. "So what do you say Tsukune?"

_This is like a bad dream_, Tsukune thought as he laid his head down on the table. A part of him knew something like this was coming. But why did it have to be now? They still had a good two years of school left. If he just went and told the other girls to leave him alone, the circle of friends that had been formed over the previous year would be broken up…and that was the _best_ of the outcomes he could foresee happening. _God in Heaven, if there is any mercy in your heart, PLEASE SAVE ME!_

The door that the 1st year girls from earlier slammed shut behind them as they ran away from the Newspaper Club was kicked off its hinges and Tsukune ran away from the crowd and over to the door without even looking to see if it was a new member, or someone seeking revenge for the half a dozen incidents that occurred last term. At the moment even that was better than having to deal with the girls. "Welcome to the-oh, Kokoa it's you."

The little vampire stormed past Tsukune, shoved the girls out of her way, and looked over to the older guy holding the signup sheets with an embarrassed blush at having to come back to this room. "After consulting with my advisor minion, I'm here to join the Newspaper Club…again."

Kurama and Fong walked into the room a second after the announcement. "So are we…I suppose," the redhead told everyone.

"But I wanted to join the Yu-Gi-Oh Club," Fong-Fong cried.

"Quiet dog! You go where we go," Kokoa shouted before she threw the yasha an application.

Mizore reached down and took an application for herself. "Now that I think about it. I need one of those too." Then she noticed all of her friends' question looks, the snow fairy shrugged. "I never technically joined last year, I just followed Tsukune into the Club Room and sat in on meetings."

"Stalker," Yukari mumbled too low for the ice monster to hear.

With the flood of new members, Ms Nekonome called off their recruitment drive and went over to finalize the application forms as well as to relieve Gin, who zipped over to Tsukune as they both watched the girls each help out one of the newcomers; with the exception of Moka who was pushed aside by Kokoa when she tried to instruct the younger vampire in what she needed to do.

"Saved in the nick of time huh?" Gin asked the younger boy as he looked at the girls. Unfortunately only the newest member was in a position that he could see anything good. Mizore and Kurumu had long since learned to be at guard at all times when in the club room.

Tsukune looked over to the werewolf in human form and gave a nervous laugh. "W-What do you mean senpai?"

The question made Gin look away from Kokoa and over to the human. "The girls." He studied the younger student for a moment. _I suppose I should try and calm him down a bit_. "You know, even if you went out and told them that you only had feelings for one of them, I doubt that it would be the end of the world or anything."

"We're talking about _these_ girls, right?" Tsukune asked as he remembered numerous times when they tried to cut or punch holes in one another over him. Despite their actions on the first day of school, he had to admit that they seemed to have calmed down a bit. But anything could set them off again.

_Why can't we all just stay like this_? Tsukune asked himself as he looked over o the table where everyone was gathered, smiling instead of fighting. _Is that so wrong_?

Gin was silent for another minute, lost in thought. Then he looked back down to Tsukune. "If you don't mind me asking, when do humans usually get married?"

This time it was Tsukune's turn to get lost mentally. _What the heck does that have to do with anything_?

When Gin didn't just give up on the question and kept looking at him, Tsukune thought about it for a moment. "Well it all depends on the person I guess," he replied. "Some do it right out of high school, although others wait till they're in their twenties. In some cases people even wait till thirties. There's also people who get married before they're eighteen but those are usually special circumstances. Why?"

"With monsters, it's a bit different," Gin told him before walking back to the table since everyone had finished filling out their forms. "Hey teach, I'll run those to the office for you."

Tsukune was left confused as the werewolf disappeared in a blur of motion. _What the heck was all that about_?

-Meanwhile in the Headmaster's office-

"But I want to join the Newspaper Club tooooooooooo!" Ruby complained as she looked out the window to the classroom where Tsukune's club was located.

Mikogami ignored his assistant's pleadings as he looked though the latest reports on his desk. Although Ruby had proven a capable assistant, she became a little too distracted whenever she was around the human to be of much help unless there was something life-threatening to focus on.

When she looked back to give the elder demon puppy dog eyes, Mikogami sighed and realized he'd have to deal with her after all. "Ruby, you're not even a student at the academy."

"So then make me the assistant director of the club or something," she offered. "Considering all the trouble those people cause-I mean, get into, there's no way their current teacher representative can handle things on her own."

The headmaster had to admit, she had a point there. But the students were handled more by the bus driver than their teacher sponsor. "No. You have your hands full assisting me with my work."

Ruby looked back on the headmaster's desk and frowned at the map with the numerous red X's at various points. She frowned at the number of markings. "I've heard there's been some incidents involving a slasher around campus. Are these the places where the victims were attacked?"

"Hmm?" Mikogami looked up at his assistant, then brushed the question off. "Oh that. No, that's not really all that important. I'm sure one of the student body will deal with him soon enough. These are areas that I've detected a previously unnoticed layer of demonic energy."

"And that means what exactly?" Ruby asked.

The headmaster motioned over to the window. "I took a look at one of the locations, and the energy signature matches that of Kurama's."

The room was still for a moment, and then Ruby slumped in disappointment. "Are you serious?" The newest student that the old man had chosen to obsess over was a real disappointment in Ruby's opinion. At first she had thought it was part of some brilliant plan like when Tsukune was enrolled in the Academy, but 'Kurama' or Shuichi Minamino seemed to be little more than a background character that Moka's little sister had picked up.

Well, it was a little odd that he had managed to attach himself to Kokoa, but Ruby supposed there was something that just drew vampires to weaklings.

She looked back out the window to where the Newspaper Club was celebrating, and caught a look at the source of Mikogami's worries. She watched the little vampire playfully crack a joke and elbow the boy in the stomach. Then she watched Kurama double over in pain and fall to the ground.

"I think you've got a few priorities messed up old man. This isn't the type of guy you loose sleep over," Ruby commented. "Face it, you got swindle led by a look-alike or something."

Mikogami sighed as he started to explain the situation. "Oh? My girl, you just can't see his deviousness.

"He already has the most powerful creature in the freshman class doing his bidding, and she doesn't even know what's going on. On top of which, he's already scouted the 1st year with the 2nd highest potential, and has him following them around. Now he's managed to successfully infiltrate the Newspaper Club and gained access to the most powerful students on campus."

"That's called making friends," Ruby deadpanned. Considering Tsukune's aptitude of it, human schools must start training their children in the skills needed for that kind of stuff at an early age. "But answer me this, if you didn't trust him then why did you bother bringing him to academy in the first place?"

The question made Mikogami frown. "That's why it's called a gamble. We barely held things together last year, and if something like that happens this year then the Academy will be forced to close down. We need the extra power, but it could all backfire on us if we're not careful. Despite his status as a demon, Kurama lives in the human world so I believed he would have accepted this academy. But based on what I can see, that may not be the case. I'll need to keep a close eye on him from here on out."

Since it seemed she wouldn't be getting anywhere with the ancient demon, Ruby decided there were better things to do with her time. "Whatever, I'm going to head out an investigate that slasher problem. I'll report back if there's any complications."

Ruby's departure went unnoticed by the headmaster as he turned to look out the window at what could be the greatest threat his school had ever faced. _Just what is going through your mind Kurama_?

-Back in the Newspaper Club's HQ-

_Mother was right, I should have taken the scholarship exam for Ouran Academy_, Kurama thought as he watched the scene of the Newspaper Club's celebration play out in front of him.

When he had heard of this monster school, Kurama had thought he had found the next big threat to humanity. While there were some problems with the place, he had found it wasn't anything too earthshaking, and even the incidents he did witness weren't all that bad considering that it was a school for monsters. Unless there was some kind of hidden agenda that he had yet to discover, Yokai Academy seemed only slightly less reputable than the average high school that was filled with delinquents. These students could just use demonic powers.

Even the dark and seedy Newspaper Club that everyone else was so afraid of seemed…mostly harmless.

In short, he really didn't need to be here. The thought left Kurama feeling a little despondent, but it was better that he wasted a little bit of time checking out what could have been a big problem later than leaving things alone. There was still the possibility of something hidden away in one of the remote locations on campus, but he could get around to looking through them by the end of the week or two at the most.

An announcement over the intercom that the school would be closing soon made everyone stop their revelry and start cleaning up. After the room was put back in order, the teacher looked over to the snow monster collecting the wrappers of her candy to throw away.

"Oh Mizore, with all the excitement of new members I almost forgot to tell you. The school's received your mother's request for you to have time off to attend your coming of age ceremony back in your village next week. Just be sure to look over the assignments your teachers give you before you leave so you can ask them if you have any questions."

Tsukune was the one to ask the question on everyone's mind. "Coming of age ceremony?"

For some reason, Mizore didn't look too happy about the prospect of getting a few days off. "It's just what it says. We hold a special ceremony the girls from my village when we reach a certain age," Mizore vaguely explained. "It's not like a birthday or anything, we all just go through it at the same time when we're old enough. They're holding it a bit earlier than usual this year, but whatever."

She looked over to her future husband. "My mother said I could bring my friends if you want to come Tsukune…and I guess the rest of you can tag along if you want to," she added after a moment of consideration. Tsukune probably wouldn't agree unless she brought everyone else too.

As no one else was going to play devil's advocate, Kurama stepped forward. "Won't there be a problem if a whole club just up and disappears for a day or two?"

Yukari scoffed at the 1st year's concern for something like that. "Yeah right, with all the problems this school has, attendance is the least of the chairman's worries."

"The first week of school isn't even over!" Kurama countered.

Kurumu moved in front of Kurama and caused him to back away from the shorter genius. "But it will be by the time Mizore's supposed to leave." She turned her back and pumped a fist into the air. "WOOOHOOO, early vacation! Who's with me?"

The resounding chorus of cheers made Kurama slump in defeat. _And of course if Kokoa's going, she's going to drag me along with her._

Although he supposed it wasn't a total loss. Ever since he had met the girl, there had been something that bothered Kurama about her. Despite her species, there was something very different, very _wrong_ about her when compared to Yukina and the other snow women that Kurama knew of. At the very least he would be able to answer that little curiosity.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Vacation

"Okay the coast is clear."

Kokoa motioned her minions to come out of the woods and follow her over to the entrance of the decrepit old castle that was believed to be the hideout of the street slasher. Although to be more precise, the dungeon of the castle was thought to be the lair of Yokai Academy's latest menace. The rest of the place was so run down no one in their right minds would stay there, even if the were criminals.

When Kokoa saw the lock on the entrance, she motioned Shuichi forward to check for alarms and open the gate without making too much noise.

As the redhead went to work, Fong-Fong poked his head out from behind the two. "Hey you guys, isn't this the job for the campus police?"

"Don't you read any of the old newspaper issues?" Kokoa rhetorically asked. "My sis put those guys out of business last year. Apart from a few patrolmen to make sure people aren't breaking curfew, there really isn't anyone powerful enough to go around policing the campus."

"Besides," she added as an afterthought, "investigating this kind of stuff is what the Newspaper Club does!"

Fong gave the young vampire a dubious look. "Questioning people is the kind of stuff we're supposed to do. I'm pretty sure this is vigilantism."

The misinterpretation of her actions by her dog made Kokoa wag her finger as she explained the reality of the situation. "Look, now that I'm a member of the Newspaper Club, we have to step up our game! Instead of starting out by questioning the victims, we're going to go strait to the culprits and get the story from them. We'll hear firsthand about how they did their crimes, as well as the reasoning behind it all. Then I'll beat them up and turn them over to the people in charge, gaining the club some much needed notoriety in the process."

"Okay…one more question then," Fong-Fong said. He pointed to the kyoshi standing behind them in her traditional Chinese zombie attire. "Just what is my sister doing here?"

"Just wait for the flashback," Kurama said as he thought about how he'd gotten into this mess while working on the lock.

-Earlier that day-

The second and third year student groups sat at separate tables as they watched the club president write '**NEWSPAPER CLUB**' in bold across the chalkboard behind his teacher-style desk and chair.

"Okay newbies listen up," Gin said as he stood in front of the club room to give his club introduction speech. "The goal of the Newspaper Club is to publish the Yokai Academy Gazette. Most of your time will be spent researching leads and conducting interviews. I'm not going to lie to you, it's going to be hard work. Day after day you'll find yourselves put into one dangerous situation after another!"

All the second year students shared a nervous look with each other. That wasn't what the club was like all the time, but…none of them could dispute that being in the Newspaper Club had been a bit more dangerous than any of them had originally thought it would be.

Fong-Fong stood up and tried to sneak off. "Okay I quit."

He managed to get a whole three steps before Kokoa grabbed his braid to yank him back into his chair. "Sit down idiot!"

Kurama raised his hand. "Excuse me, but didn't the club operate with only four members during the previous term?"

"Yeah," Gin replied in confusion.

"Then shouldn't there be a less," Kurama paused to think of he right word, "…lethal position that needs to be filled. Who handles illustrations, editing, and the rest of the background work that allows publications like this one to go into production?"

Moka let out a sigh as she and the second years raised their hands. "That would be us."

"Then who takes care of the investigations?" Kurama continued.

Kurumu gestured to her group. "Us again."

"Illustrations?"

This time it was Mizore who responded. "That's us too."

Kokoa frowned at her big sister's group, then pointed over to Gin. "THEN JUST WHAT THE HELL DOES HE DO?"

In response, Gin took a seat in the big chair behind his desk and kicked up his legs. "I delegate."

Before Kokoa could attack the lazy werewolf for being such a good-for-nothing, there was a knock at the door. Gin put his feet on the floor and looked over to the door. "It's open."

A young Chinese woman with a long ponytail dressed in classic jiang shi attire complete with Chinese paper talismans attached to various parts of her clothes walked into the room. "Excuse me, but I'm looking for the Newspaper Club."

Gin blinked at the strange woman, mostly confused by her lack of a scent. "This is-"

"Sister?" Fong-Fong said as he looked over to the woman. "What're you doing here?"

The woman looked over to the boy. "Well Fong-Fong, after you had father fax over that picture from the tapes the other day, we decided that your mission here was complete and it was best for you to come home."

_Mission_? most of the other students thought to themselves.

"Ah, about that," Fong-Fong mumbled as he tried to think of the best way to explain his failure to his sister.

But he was completely ignored as she rushed passes him and over to Kurama. "Ah it's an honor to meet the legendary Ms-" the woman stopped when Fong-Fong rushed to her side and whispered into her ear. "Wait, you're a guy?"

Kurama's eyebrow twitched. "Why is everyone thinking I'm a girl all of a sudden?"

"Well, you _do_ look pretty feminine Shuichi," Yukari commented.

"Come to think of it, so does Fong-Fong," Mizore said. The looked over to the older vampire. "Moka, does your little sister have a thing for pretty-boys?"

Moka thought about it for a moment. "You know, you may have something there. This is the first time I've ever seen my sister interested in a guy, and we never had anybody like those two back home."

"HEY!" Kokoa shouted as she glared at the group. "They're followers not boyfriends you idiots!"

The Chinese woman cleared her throat. "Yes well…then let me say it's an honor to welcome the legendary-" Fong-Fong cut the woman off again by whispering in her ear. "Seriously? What do you mean he's not joining our family?"

Kokoa moaned. "Oh God not this again." The little vampire jumped up on her desk to look the older woman in the eyes. "Okay listen…whoever you are. Shuichi is _my_ minion, which means I own him!"

"Hey," Kurama grumbled.

"That means he sticks with me, GOT IT?" In order to add to the finality of her degree, she kicked the woman in the head. Only instead of sending the newcomer through the wall, Kokoa's kick separated the woman's head from her body and sent it flying onto the top of Gin's desk.

Everyone in the room turned pale when they saw the decapitation.

"Oh my God she killed her!" Tsukune screamed.

A second after it happened, Yukari found her vision blocked by one of Mizore's ice claws. "You probably shouldn't look."

Moka looked over to her little sister, who also seemed pretty put off by the whole thing, and admonished her. "Kokoa that's going too far!"

"I-I didn't mean to," Kokoa yelled with worry in her voice.

Unnoticed by anyone, Fong-Fong just stood next to the headless corpse of his sister, which was still standing by the way, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. _She's doing it again_.

Kurumu looked over to Moka, then down to the rosary on the vampire's chest. "Okay that's it. Your little sister needs to wear this thing _way_ more than you do," she said before grabbing the jewelry and trying to remove it. The other Moka may have threatened people with crippling injuries, but she had never actually outright _killed_ anybody.

"Uh, can someone please get this thing off my desk?" Gin asked as he poked the severed head.

Kurama crossed his arms and frowned at the corpse before talking loud enough to be heard over the racket. "So how long are you going to continue on this farce? From what I can tell, you're still a functioning kyonshi."

Everyone stopped their shouted and looked over to Kurama, then to the decapitated head that suddenly opened its eyes. "Wait…how'd you know?"

"HOLY CRAP IT TALKS?" Tsukune shouted before he fell back in his chair in surprise.

"You mean besides your clothes, the talismans, the fact your body is still standing and the complete lack of blood?" Kurama asked. "It's your smell, you don't have one. I take it that's a side effect of your condition, or do your talismans keep the corpse scent from being let off by your body somehow?"

The woman stared at the redhead until her headless body found its way to the desk and reattached everything. "Well I heard you have an amazing ability to quickly analyze any situation. It seems those stories were well founded. And you're correct. An illness claimed my life several years ago, but I was preserved and brought back to this world as a living corpse.

"Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Ling-Ling Huang, and I'm already dead."

-End Flashback-

Fong-Fong frowned at Kurama. "Hey, that may have covered my sister's intro, but it still doesn't explain what we're doing here!"

Kokoa sighed at her dog's whining. "Fine. If you recall, it all started later in the club meeting…"

-A Bit Later That Same Day-

"So we've got plans for Mizore's short novel series, Kurumu's dating advice, Yukari's studying tips, and info on the newest facility member Ms Koto, but we still need a good headline story for the front page," Gin said as he reviewed the plans for the first paper of the term while everyone was lined up in front of him.

Kurama leaned over to Tsukune. "What exactly does Koto teach anyway?"

"Choir."

"Isn't that supposed to be a club?"

"You lived in the human world before coming here, and _that's_ the discrepancy you want to point out between this and a human school?" Tsukune asked.

"HEY! ARE YOU GUYS LISTENING?" Gin shouted.

Tsukune and Kurama shared a look, then turned their attention back to Gin. "Not really," they said at the same time.

Gin growled at his insolent subordinates before slapping the chalkboard to get everyone's attention. "Okay listen up! After the club got rid of pretty much all the troublemakers last year, there's only two stories that'll show everyone we're still holding to the kind of flavor that our loyal readers expect."

He held up his index finger. "The first is the slasher. For the past few days several members of the student body have been found gravely injured, and three are missing. All of them were found with several knife wounds all over their bodies."

"We'll take it!" Kokoa shouted ass he stepped forward.

"Say what?" both Kurama and Fong-Fong mumbled.

"This is a perfect chance for me to show off-I mean, prove to everyone what great reporters we are," she told her lackeys.

Gin raised an eyebrow at the girl's 'showing off' comment, but she did seem to have a lot of enthusiasm for the job. "Okay then. Moka, you and Kokoa can-"

"Whoa, whoa hold on a second," Kokoa cut in. "You guys can take the other story, whatever it is. We'll handle the slasher." Then she thought for a minute, and continued. "In fact, let's make it a race. First ones to break their story wins!"

While everyone else looked hesitant at the idea, Moka actually took a step forward to answer the challenge, much to everyone else's surprise and/or annoyance . "Okay Kokoa you've got a bet."

Tsukune took Moka aside for a moment. "Uh Moka what the heck are you doing? You do realize this slasher guy is some sort of serial murderer, right?"

"Yes but…" she took a moment to look over to Kokoa, then turned her attention back to Tsukune. "You don't understand Tsukune. Ever since she was little, Kokoa has always been following me around and living in my shadow. But since she came here, Kokoa's gotten out on her own and made her own friends and started to develop into her own person."

"I repeat, _**serial murderer**_," Tsukune replied.

The rosary around Moka's neck whipped around violently, making Moka sigh. "Fine I'll say it," he mumbled before giving Tsukune a forced deadpan look. "You do remember she's a vampire right? The girl _can_ handle herself."

The club room's door opening put an end to their private conversation. When they saw it was Ling-Ling, her brother got away from Kokoa. "Sis, what're you still doing here? I told you I can't come home yet."

"Yes well, since Mom and Dad are a little miffed about you not making any headway, I've been enrolled in the academy as a third-year to take over you recruitment responsibilities," Ling-Ling told him.

Fong-Fong raised an eyebrow at his 'sister'. Despite her title and apparent age, Ling-Ling was more along the lines of Fong's great-great-great aunt. The girl had died back during the founding of his family and preserved by the head of the patriarch of the Huang. She was much too old to be attending classes at the academy.

"And the reason I'm here again is to join your club," she announced to everyone else.

A second later Kokoa rushed over to grab the Chinese woman's wrist. "I call dibs on the Chinese zombie." With another girl in her group, there was no way that the other students could say she was trying to get a reverse harem!

Kurumu looked over to Gin as the newbies left to track down information for their slasher story. "So what's the other story."

Gin cleared his throat and turned to look at a map of the school hanging from the wall. "Yes well, the slasher isn't the only one causing trouble. For the past several nights, girls have been attacked and ended up with torn skirts and complaints that their attacker molested them. However, no one has been able to provide a credible account of what the attacker looked like. Going by this, the monster has to be incredibly fast, and have animal claws. Now-" Gin turned around to see everyone left in the room was glaring at him. "WHY IS EVERYONE LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?"

"Take a wild guess," Kurumu replied as she glared at the perverted werewolf, a monster with legendary speed and sharp animal claws.

-Present-

"So then why are we checking out a super creepy dungeon that isn't even in use anymore?" Fong-Fong asked. "This was supposed to be where they held some of the of dangerous criminals from previous terms!"

Kokoa rolled her eyes. "Duh. I saw the position of all the attacks and realized they were all situated around this dungeon."

The gate clicked, and Kurama opened the way into the cavernous entrance to the caves of the former dungeon. "That the lock on this place is in excellent condition despite it supposedly being abandoned for several years, and I can smell at least three different scents apart from ours that leave a trail going deeper into the dungeon."

Kokoa looked over to the other redhead and smirked. "Smell huh? Good going Shuichi. It's nice to know you actually have some useful abilities aside from your mouth."

The two Chinese monsters shared a look.

"Quit trying to find sexual innuendo in the child's words," Kurama grumbled at the brother/sister pair.

"Everyone follow me!" After grabbing her bat and changing it into a spiked club, Kokoa headed into the dungeon and looked around at the numerous tunnels leading deeper into the ground. "Uh…which way to the bad guys?" she asked the other redhead with the powerful sense of smell.

A few minutes later, Kokoa was once again leading the way through the dungeon while the other three member so the group followed a few meters behind.

"Okay here's something I don't quite get," Ling-Ling said to Kurama low enough for their leader not to hear. "Why exactly are we following _her_?"

Fong-Fong smirked before he started talking in a cutesy voice. "Isn't it obvious sister its-"

"If the next word out of your moth starts with an L, no one will never find your body," Kurama warned.

"Okay I'll shut up," the Chinese boy replied.

Ling-Ling frowned as she looked over to the ancient demon. "I've read up on you. You're older and supposed to be more powerful than even _my_ master. Not only that, but according to our sources, you were once the right-hand to one of the three lords of the Demon Realm last year; beings that might as well be gods for all intents and purposes. Now you're following around a vampire with a flat chest and an attitude problem. It really makes me wonder _why_."

The whole thing sounded more than a little hypocritical to the fox demon turned human. "This coming from a pair of triad members who want me to join their syndicate and follow the orders of their higher-ups. Which begs the question, just how much do you know about me?"

"Well our information is somewhat incomplete," Ling-Ling admitted. "We just have some bootleg copies of the first three rounds of the Dark Tournament. From what I understand, tapes of the semi-finals and up were destroyed when the stadium exploded during the last few rounds. But we also have contacts in the Demon Realm that informed us of the big shakeup last year involving the Three Kings."

The group came to a fork in the tunnel, and Kurama pointed them to the path on the right after a second of thinking about it. As soon as they continued on Ling-Ling looked over to the older redhead. "You now, you still haven't answered my question. Why are you taking orders from a little vampire delinquent?"

Kurama shrugged. "I blame my overdeveloped sense of nostalgia." He frowned, the looked back down the direction they came. "By the way, can either of you handle a minotaur in close quarters combat?"

"I can," Ling-Ling replied. "But isn't the whole reason we're here to let Kokoa beat the crap out of something?"

In response to the kyoshi's question, Kurama pointed towards the other end of the tunnel. "Yes, but I can also smell someone coming from the opposite end of the passageway. So she'll probably be busy with that."

As if on queue, the two figures appeared on opposite ends of the tunnel at the same time. The minotaur was everything one would expect from such a legendary monster, a tall and muscular humanoid bull whose head nearly touched the ten foot ceiling. The giant machete that matched the creature's size hanging on his belt only made him look all the more intimidating.

Then there was the creature at the other end of the tunnel currently in human form: a scrawny-looking weirdo dressed in a vertically stripped shirt holding a combat knife, with another one still on his belt.

Kokoa looked at her opponent, then back the minotaur, then back to the guy on her side of the tunnel. Then she looked over to her group. "Hey can someone switch with me? I wanna fight the big nasty looking monster. Even Fong-Fong could handle this scrawny idiot."

"Okay then," Fong-Fong said before he rushed to get in front of Kokoa. "I've been waiting to show off my talents!"

Kokoa looked on in amazement as the Chinese boy stepped forward to fight. "Wait a second, you mean you can actually do something _useful_?" she exclaimed. "I thought you were just some sort of comic relief background character!"

_I hate to admit it, but so did I_, Kurama thought to himself.

A vertical line appeared on Fong-Fong's forehead that opened to reveal a third eye. He took out a handful of coins from both pockets and clasped his hands together. When he separated them, the coins had joined to form a short-sword. "Not only am I a yasha, but I am the heir to the Huang family! Hundreds of monsters are at my command," he said before reaching behind his back to pull out a talisman and stabbed through it with his sword. "Now behold my power! **RANDOM SUMMONING**!"

"Random summoning?" Kurama asked Ling-Ling.

The Chinese zombie crossed her arms and frowned at her brother. "Yes Fong-Fong is attempting to follow in his father's footsteps as a master summoner. However, due to his age and inexperience, he can still only summon random creatures. Sometimes it's an extremely powerful monster that would take years of experience that my little brother doesn't have to call up-"

Lighting shot out of the talisman and struck the ground in front of Fong-Fong in to kick up a cloud of dist and smoke in a grand display. When the smoke cleared to reveal the monster that Fong had summoned…a giant panda sat in the middle of the hallway eating a piece of bamboo it brought with him.

"-and sometimes it's an epic fail," Ling-Ling explained.

Kurama frowned, the pointed to the panda as a realization hit him. "Oh now I get it, your whole character design is basically an updated and better drawn version of Ranma Saotome, just with longer hair and more feminine features." He took a moment to think for a moment why that was. "Although, I guess that could be explained away because of the whole sex-changing stuff that you can't do."

The summarization of his character made Fong-Fong turn around and glare. "I am not! I'm a completely original character made for Rosario+Vampire!"

"You have to admit, they _do_ look alike," Kokoa said as she pulled out and old manage to compare their faces. "And Fong-Fong's clothes are a bit flashier, but it's pretty much the same style too."

Kurama let out a depressed sigh. "It's sad really. Back in the 90s, anime was fresh and new. Now all you see is people copying things from that era. You wouldn't believe how much is stolen from Yu Yu Hakusho to be put into stuff like Naruto and Bleach."

Ling-Ling nodded in agreement before offering the counterpoint. "But you have to admit it's better than seeing twenty Dragonball Z clones where all anyone does is fly around, shoot energy blasts, and repeat the same frames fifty times during a fight."

"Yeah, thanks for making fights _complicated_ instead of the simple smash and bash," Kokoa grumbled before she walked over to take up position in front of the minotaur.

"Okay fine," Kurama admitted before he pulled out some hammer and nails. "Now let's get the 4th wall back up so we can continue the story."

With reality being put back into place by Kurama and his sister, Fong-Fong pointed his coin-sword towards the slasher. "Go Saotome! Even you can take somebody like that!"

_Please don't tell me that's the panda's real name_, Kurama begged as he worked to fix the nature of reality.

The panda leaped towards the scrawny man with the knife, who vaulted over the summoned monster. The creature turned around to try and find his opponent, only to see its master standing there looking at the ceiling.

Up above, the slasher's form had changed. He had grown four more arms with inhuman claws at the end and taken on an arachnid-like appearance complete with mandibles coming from his mouth. "This is my true form. That of a Tsuchigumo, a Japanese spider demon!"

"Hey wait a second, if you're a spider demon, shouldn't you have eight arms?" Fong-Fong asked

The Tsuchigumo glared down at the boy. "It's eight appendages you idiot! My legs count too! Now take this! **WEB BLAST**!" The demon's four monster arms shot out to strike Fong-Fong on his wrists and knees.

"Now you're mine!" the spider demon said as he prepared to yank the boy up into stabbing range.

"Sis help!" Fong-Fong shouted.

Ling-Ling didn't bother looking away as she pounded another nail into the board in front of her. "Sorry, little busy fixing the fabric of reality."

"Kokoa?" Fong-Fong called out uncertainly.

The vampire looked away from whatever she was doing and frowned. "Hey don't bring me into this, I'm not letting my big fight scene get chopped into little pieces that no one can follow because you screwed up!" she shouted before going back to the minotaur.

But before the summoner could be pulled to his impending doom, the Saotome panda jumped forward and grabbed into its master.

"Idiot! A spider can lift almost sixty times its own weight. That stupid animal isn't going to stop me," Tsuchigumo shouted as he yanked on his webbing to try and start pulling them both up. "All-ugh-you're-nugh-is dergh-delaying the-nragh…GOOD GOD WHAT DO YOU FEED THAT THING?" In order to try and pull the Chinese boy free, the spider sheathed its knives and tried pulling with all six arms.

The panda frowned, then reached behind its back to pull out a sign from nowhere [Are you calling me fat?].

Kurama moaned. "The sign language is going a bit too far."

Of course this meant he was no longer holding onto the yasha, and the lack of resistance on the stretched webbing caused Fong-Fong to spring up, crashing him into the unprepared spider demon. The demon's head snapped back from the impact and slammed into the cave ceiling, knocking it out before both he and Fong-Fong fell to the ground in a heap of webbing that bound them together.

The panda flipped the sign over [Oops]. Then, with its master rendered unconscious, the summoned beat disappeared back to whence it came.

Meanwhile on the other side of the group…

_A minotaur, this is perfect_, Kokoa thought.

From what she knew, minotaur were the workhorses of the demon world. They were big, physically strong, had high endurance, and weren't too bright so they were willing to work for basically nothing.

"Okay since I'm one of the good guys and have to give you the obligatory chance to surrender as well as introductions," Kokoa said before she pointed her weapon at the creature and cleared her throat. "My name's Kokoa Shuzen of the Newspaper Club! Now I'm giving you one chance to give up and submit to an interview before I just beat the information out of you!"

To which the minotaur replied: "Brawar?"

_Oh right, minotaur monsters can't talk_, she remembered. "Okay…well, I guess I could give you a questionnaire or something and have you write down the-"

"BRAGH!" the minotaur shouted as he charged the little vampire and attacked with his oversized machete.

Kokoa barely had time to dig her heels in and bring up her spiked club to block the attack. Then she frowned as the minotaur stepped forward and raised his free hand for another attack. _Oh crap_, Kokoa thought before a fist as big as the upper half of her body knocked her aside and into the wall.

Fighting off the grogginess that comes with sever head trauma, Kokoa stepped out of the impact crater before charging. She threw her weight into the swing, only to have it blocked by the larger monster's weapon before it attacked with its free hand and clipped Kokoa on the while she was trying to jump away.

The vampire landed clumsily and stumbled to regain her footing. _This isn't exactly working out the way I thought it would_, Kokoa told herself.

Then, the larger monster finally took the offensive before Kokoa could realign herself. She managed to parry his first blow and his second, and third, but each one drove her back a step and loosened the grip on her weapon.

_Stupid cow monster, why is it I'm always fighting someone with a longer reach than me_? Kokoa asked herself. She couldn't get inside the minotaur's guard because he could attack and counter long before she got anywhere near enough to reach him, and the weight of her weapon made it a poor defense.

For a second Kokoa wished she was fighting this thing hand to hand. Even with its size and physical strength, a minotaur wasn't that much when stacked up against a vampire. But the big nasty sword he was using added to the amount of force he could put behind it would cleave her in two if the minotaur managed a hit.

Changing her weapon into something different would take too long and leave her exposed. So, she decided on the crazy idea that popped into her head at the last second before the minotaur's weapon could connect with hers.

Kokoa simply let go of the club.

Without any vampire-level resistance to meet his strike, the minotaur stumbled forward while Kokoa weaved around his right side to strike the bull-man in his side with her fist and sent him crashing into the cave wall.

Not wasting her chance, Kokoa whistled for her bat and jumped at the minotaur before it could get up. The second her familiar flew within reach she grabbed the creature and formed it into an oversized morning star almost as big as she was. "BLOCK THIS YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"Ruh-Roh," the minotaur said before he brought his arms up to try and stop the giant ball of spikes that came down on him a second later to shatter his arms as well as most of his ribs, and left the creature's legs twitching.

With the minotaur dealt with, Kokoa turned to her group. "Okay guys I'm done," she said to see if Fong was in need of mourning, and blinked at the sight of him still breathing and attached to the spider demon in a big ball of webbing. "Wow."

Kurama nodded. "Yes, it _is_ rather amazing Fong-Fong managed to defeat an opponent." Even though his victory was a bit of a fluke.

"Yeah, I gotta say I'm surprised about that too," Kokoa admitted.

"Too?"

"Well the whole 'wow' was more about me being glad he wasn't dead than anything he actually did," the vampire admitted.

With the lack of concern she had to her secondary underling explained, Kokoa turned her attention back to their defeated opponents. "So now what? Tie them up and turn them over to what passes for the campus police around here?" She looked over between the two monsters, the one with the knives, and then the one with the machete. "Which one of these guys is the slasher anyway?"

Kurama walked up from behind the vampire. "Judging by their weapons…neither."

Ling-Ling pulled her brother out of the mess that tangled him up with the unconscious spider demon and looked over to the redheads. "How do you know that?"

"I read the reports on the victims on the way over here, remember?"

Kokoa blinked in confusion. "I thought you were just doing your homework," she mumbled. The guy was a pretty big nerd from what she'd seen in class.

"None of their wounds match up with their weapons," Kurama explained as he knelt down to examine the spider to make sure he'd be staying unconscious. "According to what the nurse wrote, the weapon used was a double-edged knife. The Tsuchigumo might have used small blades, but they were combat knives that don't match the profile of whatever caused the wounds."

Kurama stood up and dusted himself off. "Which means the slasher must be the third scent I detected when we came in here." Another scent reached his nose, and Kurama towards the direction that the spider-man came from. "And this would him now."

The third demon came into view. Like the spider in the beginning, he was in human form and dressed in a much classier suit than his companion had been along with a tie and cigarette in his mouth. There was a briefcase in his right hand, covered in blood. "Thanks for getting rid my partners. I was worried about splitting my big score. But now I don't have to split anything and can retire in peace. Once I get rid of you fools that is."

"Wait a second, you mean this guy's the boss?" she yelled before looking back to the defeated minotaur. _Damnit, here I was fighting an underling when I should have had Ling do it_. Everyone knew the main hero waited till last to fight the main boss. Of course she could still handle a tough opponent, even with all her bruises, depleted stamina, and shortness of breath.

The man with the tie sucked another breath through his cigarette. "That's right little girl. Of course with your main fighter worn out, this will be like taking candy from a baby."

Kurama studied Kokoa for a moment, the girl was in no condition to fight; especially if the creature in front of them was strong enough to order a powerful monster like the minotaur around. He could deal with the man himself of course, but to do so Kurama needed to buy a minute or two.

The taller redhead frowned at the smoker as the boss villain took another drag from his cigarette. "Big Score? What is that supposed to mean? I was under the impression that you three were part of some kidnapping scheme."

"Kidnapping scheme?" Ling-Ling asked.

Kurama shrugged. "Well there are three students missing. What else would that be for?"

The smoker coughed heavily for a few moments, then looked over to Kurama. "Actually, those missing kids are all dead." When the rest of the students looked at him to frown and give other various looks of justified anger, the boss couldn't help but smirk. "We brought them back here to have some fun with them is all. We got plenty of money from the take."

Kokoa crossed her arms and nodded her head. "Yeah you should have caught that one Shuichi. I haven't hard anything about ransom notes showing up around school." It looked like her brains minion didn't have all-inclusive knowledge when it came to the more criminal enterprises.

"Then what's he going on about a big score for?" Kurama asked. "That's criminal talk for a sum of money obtained illegally. And what's with the bloody briefcase?"

Once again the smoker answered the question, but not before having another coughing fit that actually had him behind over. "Oh this?" he asked while holding up the object in question. "You see, me and my buddies went to Human Realm to steal some cash, we've been doing it for awhile now, then we come back here to hide out since they can't find this academy because of the barrier."

He took one last drag of his cigarette, then dropped the nearly spent tobacco stick to the ground and crushed it before slowly walking forward, slouching as he did so. "So…*huff*…we gonna…*ghasp*…fight now or…ugh…"

The Chinese zombie and the vampire blinked when the man just collapsed for no apparent reason. "Well, that's odd. So…we win?" Ling-Ling asked as she looked at the others for confirmation of their victory.

"Uh…what the hell just happened?" Kokoa wondered aloud.

Kurama made a show of blinking in surprise. "Well…my mother always said smoking was dangerous, I just never believed her till now." Of course the leader's collapse had more to do with the fact Kurama had altered the tobacco in his cigarette into something much more lethal substance that caused his lungs to seize up, but he wasn't actually going to _tell_ them that.

Ling-Ling raised her eyebrow at Kurama's rather poor explanation, although the fact that Kokoa wasn't calling him on it made the kyonshi also keep her mouth shut. "So what now?"

The moronic question made the vampire roll her eyes. "Duh! We tie them up and get our interviews!"

"I don't think they'll be too cooperative," Kurama told her.

"Then we'll just beat them until they are!" Kokoa groaned at her team's foolishness. Why was she the one that had to think of everything all of a sudden? She had thought Shuichi was one of those quick thinking types, but he apparently last about a hundred IQ points when taken out of his element.

Kurama looked back down at the bloodstained briefcase. "And the money?"

"Well this is a dungeon, so I say normal party looting rules apply," Kokoa theorized as she rubbed her chin and pulled out a pair of dice. "Do either of you actually _need_ a briefcase with several million yen, or is everyone just rolling greed?"

"Wait, that's a monetary sum. Shouldn't it just been an even split?" Ling-Ling asked.

"Please tell me your not serious," Kurama said in a deadpan tone with a disbelieving expression.

For a moment Kokoa looked at the other redhead with an annoyed expression, then sighed. "Fine Mr goody-goody. We'll make it an even five-way split. Fifth goes to the club for funding future projects, you happy?"

-And so the next day-

**Spider Thief**: Oh God! Oh God the pain! I'll tell you anything you want, just don't hurt me anymore

**Interviewer 1**: Good. So tell me, how does it feel being beating by a 2nd rate background character on accident?

**Interviewer 4**: Second rate? I think I'm a good supporting cast character.

**Spider Thief**: Pretty bad. I mean I know it was two to one, but that summoned monster was terrible and the guy who called it up even more so, and I still lost to them.

**Interviewer 1**: Do your arms grow back? Because I might actually feel a little guilty about tearing those two off just to get you to talk.

**Spider Thief**: I'm not really sure.

**Interviewer 1**: So on a scale of one to ten, how awesome do you think I am for defeating your minotaur goon so quickly? I'd ask him but…he can't talk…and I think he might have some trouble breathing too since I crushed his lungs.

Gin stopped reading the article that Kokoa had given him a few minutes ago before putting down the paper and looking over to the vampire who was standing in front of him proudly with her arms cross. "Well…I see you're really willing to go the extra mile for your story."

"Yeah good work Kokoa," Kurumu said as she put her copy of the draft down. "Although it needs a bit of work. This is pretty good for a rough draft."

Surprised as everyone else's acceptance of Kokoa's article that told what happened in the dungeon was swell as the gory details of what happened afterwards before the spider demon submitted to the interview, Tsukune threw the paper onto the main table. "We can't print this!" Tsukune yelled at the people in the room.

Kokoa looked over to the boyfriend of her sister's alter ego and blinked. She was more than a little disappointed in the first unofficial review of her work, she had put a lot of hard work into it. "Why not? I had Shuichi proof read it for me so there aren't any errors."

"Are you serious?" Tsukune asked as held up the draft he had just discarded. "You tortured the guy you were interviewing half to death, didn't return the money they'd stolen, and included graphic details of everything you all did. There's no way something like _this_ should be in the school newspaper."

"Tsukune's right," Mizore added, quick to back up her future husband. "You're trying to put yourself in the limelight too much. As reporters, it's our duty to tell everyone what happens without stealing the spotlight. You're supposed to tell the story, not be part of it."

_That's not what I meant_, Tsukune thought. He looked around the room to try and find someone to help him explain, but since the rest of Kokoa's group was gone to visit Fong-Fong in the nurse's office and Moka had escaped through the window when Kokoa had come inside the clubroom, he only had Yukari to rely on.

"Help me out here," the human asked the witch.

Yukari nodded before she walked around the room taking up the drafts to hand to them Kokoa and placed a supporting hand on the vampire's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll help you re-word it tonight so we can get everything done before we head to Mizore's hometown."

The unexpected act of generosity made Kokoa smile. "Thanks!"

"Well as your senior, it is my responsibility to look after you," Yukari told her with a self-satisfied smirk.

Kokoa frowned at the _younger_ monster's use of the word senior, but let it slide since the witch was willing to help the vampire with her article.

"B-But what about the stolen money that was recovered?" Tsukune asked.

"What about it?" Gin asked, generally confused. "The club got its cut, and we've been needing to get some new high-quality zoom lenses since the last one was cut into four pieces."

Kurumu looked over to Gin and frowned. "You try and take a picture of me in the bath again and that won't be the only thing that gets cut off," she warned after lengthening her nails.

"But it was _stolen_," Tsukune protested, turning the conversation back to what was important.

"I think the correct term is looted," Yukari corrected. "Although, since Kokoa didn't actually kill anyone, there wasn't a corpse to pull it off of. So maybe Tsukune's description is a bit more accurate."

Kokoa blinked and looked over to Yukari. "Does that matter?"

"Well yeah! As newspaper reporters, every word we print is important. One little word can change the _whole_ context of an article. And since it's all written down, you need to make sure everything is perfectly clear or someone can easily call you out on whatever you say."

The thought that Moka's boyfriend was so meticulous was a little of a surprise to Kokoa. But then again, he would have to be perfect at something to attract the attention of Moka, or rather the thing that was a pink-haired shadow of Moka. "Okay I get it now. So should we go to your room or mine?"

"That's not what I mean-Oh never mind," Tsukune said as he saw neither of the girls was paying him much attention. It was also at that point the had an epiphany concerning the newest members of the Newspaper Club.

When Tsukune had first met Kurumu, Mizore, and even Yukari to some extent, they had all been borderline creepy to dangerously scary; even Moka's other half would have fit the description. It was only after spending some time with him that they seemed to mellow out, and even then the girls got into duels on a weekly basis almost all of last term. It was only up towards the end that they really started to mellow out and act well…_normal_.

_But these new students are all still fresh from the kind of world that monsters live in_, Tsukune told himself. Which meant all the headaches from yesteryear would be coming back soon enough.

"Let's go to your room and do it," Yukari told Kokoa as they walked past Tsukune and towards the door. "By the way, do you mind giving me a few yen from that stuff you got the other night? If we're going to Mizore's hometown, I'll probably need some warmer clothes."

Kokoa didn't see the harm if the younger girl was going to help with the article. "Okay. I need to get an actual school uniform too. Shuichi's been nagging me about it. I swear he's worse than my dad."

-Then the day after that-

The school day came and went, with the club managing to finally distribute the newspaper they worked so hard on; although the mystery of the perverted stalker went unsolved for the time being; although Gin was certain that not being around when another attack happened would prove his innocence. The rest of the day went on as normal with classes. Only twenty three fights broke out across campus, a record low for the academy this early in the school year, with a mere three ending in fatalities.

When the day finally ended, all of the Newspaper Club 2nd year students, the club president, the two 1st year redheads got on the bus to head to Mizore's hometown. Thanks to the loot gathered from the dungeon run, the club was able to provide proper winter attire for all its members with no out of pocket expenses.

"WOOOHOOOO! EARLY VACATION!" Kurumu cheered as she got on the bus and looked around. "Oh cool, this bus even has a karaoke machine!"

Kurama took his seat behind the driver. "We're…driving to a hidden village in the middle of nowhere that's far enough to the north to have snow this time of year?"

The bus driver took out his cigarette and looked back at the guy. "Sure. The dimensional gateways connect to more than just one location. We'll be there inside of ten minutes."

"Hey Tsukune, come sing a duet with me," Kurumu said as she stopped the boy right as he walked past her and pulled him up to the microphone.

Down the isle, Moka frowned at the succubus, but she decided to let it go when the person responsible for the trip sat down in front of her. "Hey Mizore, thanks for inviting us along."

In truth, Moka had thought the anti-social girl still hated the vampire's guts because of the relationship problem with Tsukune. Despite being around each other for a year, Moka still didn't know that much about Mizore. If the snow girl was reaching out to everyone with this trip, then she would gladly reciprocate.

"Hey, where's the China boy/girl duo?" Yukari asked as she sat down next to Moka and looked around the bus.

"I don't think they're coming," Kokoa told her. "Fong is still in the nurse's office, and Ling said it wouldn't be right to just go off and leave him there."

Yukari frowned at the news. "Geeze, that guy is going to have to up his durability and recovery time if he expects to be a comedic sidekick. It's not an easy life."

"Yeah yeah enough about them, let's talk about something actually important," Gin cut in. "So Mizore, about that snow girl village. Your single lady population is what…90%? I'm talking about the cute young ones."

The comment made Kurama frown. _Well that solves the mystery of why he's tagging along_. He thought about for a moment, then decided to burst Gin's bubble before they actually got to the village. "You do know for snow women having children with men is forbidden, right? They reproduce using same sex partners."

For a moment everything was silent, then Kurumu broke it. "SAY WHAT?" she shouted loud enough to make the whole bus jump.

"_Seriously_?It's an entire village of lesbians?" Gin shouted before he ran to the back and opened up his suitcase to look inside, then stood up with a determined look in his eye. "Driver we have to go back to the academy! I didn't bring enough film!"

The dramatic scene was cut short when Kurumu jumped on top of him with her claws extended. "Die pervert!"

This brought everyone back to more pressing concerns…

"You can have babies with another _girl_?" Yukari asked, halfway scandalized, halfway interested. It did explain Mizore's support for the harem idea though. "Uh…how's that work anyway?"

With her thoughts going along similar lines, a blush covered Moka's cheeks as she remembered Mizore's words from the other day when they were discussing the possibility of a harem; although it was obvious now that Mizore had something a bit different in mind than sharing Tsukune with everyone. "M-Mizore I'm flattered, but…I'm just not that type of girl."

Tsukune was going to cut in to try and restore, but Moka's comment gave him a vivid mental picture of her and Mizore together, and he quickly collapsed from blood loss via nosebleed.

Thanks to all the attention, Mizore shrank in on herself. "N-No it's not like that," she got out in a quiet mumble. "My people used to be able to have children like that…but we can't anymore. I need Tsukune just like the rest of you."

With Gin full of multiple stab wounds that would have killed anything without a werewolf's regenerative abilities, Kurumu looked up at Mizore. "Are you sure it's _just_ Tsukune?" Then she looked over to Kurama, "and how'd you know about something like that anyway?"

"Ancient demonic history," Kurama lied with a strait face. Internally, he was extremely confused.

"Oh crap!" Yukari exclaimed as she looked over to Kurama in fear. "H-His mental demonic encyclopediatic knowledge just surpassed my own."

Moka blinked in confusion. "And that's important, why?"

"It means he's out Hermione Grangered me!" Yukari complained. "I'm supposed to be the know-it-all character damn it! It was tied up till now with me being a witch and him being a redhead and me being an outsider with him being overly mature, but if he knows more useless facts than I do, it completely upsets the whole balance!"

Before everything could degrade into a brawl, or worse a trivia contest to prove just who knew what, the bus came to exit the tunnel. _Just in time_, the bus driver thought to himself. Long distance inter-dimensional travel put a real strain on 4th wall physics.

Noticing the change in the lighting, Kurumu got up to the window. "Yahoo! Winter wonderland here we-" Kurumu cut herself off as the second they cleared the tunnel, the bus was assaulted by a killer blizzard. "What the hell?"

Thanks to the unexpected level of cold, everyone scrambled to get on artic level gear as the bus cam to a complete stop and everyone was ordered off. Most of the girls put on parkas. Tsukune, still groggy from the loss of blood, was helped into a much heavier coat. Gin simply kicked off his shoes and assumed his werewolf form. Mizore took off her shirt and pants to reveal a bathing suit.

As soon as they were off the bus and it was gone, Kurumu looked over to the girl. "What the hell is this Mizore?"

"Do you like my winter wear Tsukune?" Mizore asked as she modeled the two-piece in front of him.

"Don't ignore me!" Kurumu shouted.

The snow fairy looked back to the succubus with an unreadable expression. "What? I'm a snow monster. Cold doesn't effect me."

"Not that!" Kurumu exclaimed as she threw her hands out to gesture to the girl. _That_ much she could understand. It was actually a nice little plot to be honest. While everyone else had to stay covered of in front of Tsukune, she could prance around practically naked.

"I'm talking about the weather! There's no way this is natural!" Kurumu shouted as she threw her arms out to point to all the snow.

Mizore raised an eyebrow. "Well of course it isn't. My village is under a barrier like Yokai Academy. Except like it's always autumn there, this place is kept in perpetual winter. Now everyone hold hands so you don't get lost."

Then she latched onto Tsukune's arm, while Kurumu quickly grabbed his other one.

In the back of the group. Kurama looked over at the two vampires cautiously. "Are you two going to be alright?"

Both of them blinked at Kurama, then shared a confused look, and then turned their attention back to the boy. "Yes, why?" Moka asked.

"But don't vampires get hurt by coming into contact with water?" he asked.

"Okay Shuichi you already won your HGC title from the witch, no need to keep at it with the basic monster facts," Kokoa told him.

"But snow _is_ water," Kurama informed the girls.

Moka and Kokoa blinked, then looked around, and screamed before going into complete panic mode.

"Holy crap he's right!" Kokoa shouted.

Moka looked around in panic for shelter while trying not to start screaming her head of. "What're we gonna do? What're we gonna do? What're we gonna do? What're we gonna-hey, shouldn't we be melting by now?"

The other vampire stopped trying to shield her face from the falling snow, then pulled the hood down on her parka to let the frozen rain though her skin to no ill effect despite the fact that there _were_ tiny droplets of ice that melted from coming into contact with her skin. "Well, guess ice can't hurt vampires."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Kurama exclaimed. "Ice _is_ water! Just because it goes from solid to liquid doesn't mean that it stops being water."

Moka huffed, then grabbed the hands of her little sister and her pseudo-boyfriend before following after the others. "Quit calling attention to the plot holes before someone hears you!"

After joining up with the rest of their party, the group was led through the blizzard and came out overlooking the Village of the Snow Women. From what Kurama could tell, the place was built in much the same design as the descriptions he'd heard of the original home for the monsters back in Demon Realm. They took a moment to admire the view, then headed down into the village.

The entire place was crafted from ice, and although a few giant old-style towers stood as a reminder to days gone by, most of the buildings were more contemporary and looked to include some normal building materials.

There did seem to be something off about the place though…

"Where's all the girls?" Gin mumbled as he looked around and sniffed the air.

_He noticed it too_, Kurama thought as he looked around. It wasn't just the lack of people, a city of the size they were in would have had enough scents that Kurama would have gotten a headache from prolonged exposure. From what he could smell, the village barely qualified as inhabited when the size of the place was put into consideration.

"This place is amazing," Tsukune said as he looked around. "But it kind of begs the question, how come no one else knows about it?" He looked up into the sky at the aurora above them and frowned. _Are we not even in Japan anymore_?

"It's because of the barrier silly," a woman said as she came out of the building in front of them. "It keeps outsiders from approaching, and maintains the weather as well as the lights in the sky."

Mizore bowed her head a little to her mom. "Mother, these are my friends. You already met Kurumu and Tsukune at the festival last year. The wolf's my senpai Gin Morioka," Mizore began before handing out the rest of the introductions, ending with Shuichi's before giving her mother's name: Tsuara Shirayuki.

Then Mizore frowned when she noticed her mother's apparent unease at the taller redhead's introduction. "Something wrong?"

The older snow monster blinked, then regained her composure and looked over to Tsukune. "Well I'm glad Mizore could get her friends to come," Tsuara told them. "I'm afraid the problem that the village faces has grown worse as of late. The priestess has even moved up the date of the flower ceremony because of it."

Kurumu looked over to Mizore, then her mother. _I knew it was too good to be true_, she thought. There really was something going on behind the scenes, and more than likely it was something _they_ would be expected to solve. "What problem?"

"To put it simply, the number of snow fairies has been on the decline lately," Tsuara told everyone before grabbing Tsukune by the arm. "So it's best if we get started on making children right away. Tsukune, I've already prepared a bed for you and Mizore to conceive your first child in. Come with me please."

It took a few moments for Tsukune's mind to register just what Mizore's mother wanted him to do. "Wait a second-hey stop! Someone, a little help here?"

Mizore formed an ice shard small enough to throw and tossed it at Tsuara to keep her from dragging Tsukune inside the house. "Cut it out mother. If everyone gets into a fight over Tsukune now it'll spoil dinner."

Both Kurumu and Moka frowned at the older woman's actions.

"What's up with Mizore? Usually she's the first one to resort to possessive violence," Kurumu mumbled more to herself than Moka, even though the vampire did respond.

"Well this is her hometown and we do tend to cause a lot of collateral damage. So I guess it wouldn't be good for Mizore to be causing a lot of trouble for everyone back home."

For her part, Yukari simply nodded in agreement.

With everything calmed back down, the group went inside the house and sat down at the table to wait for Tsuara to serve the food. Once the table was fully spread and everyone had put something on their plate, Tsuara looked around. "So, will you all be attending the ceremony to support Mizore, or do you want to be participants as well?"

The girls shared a look, and Moka turned her attention back to the snow women. "About that…what exactly is this flower ceremony?"

"I thought I told all of you," Mizore said. "It's the coming of age ceremony for snow fairies in the village. The year a girl turns seventeen, we participate in the flower offering. The girls go to the base of the mountain and pick Snow White flowers, then offer them at the temple."

Yukari raised an eyebrow as the name of the flower tugged at her memory. "Snow Whites?" From what she could remember, they were supposed to be a kind of aphrodisiac. _Well I supposed the flower could symbolize love or something for ice monsters_.

"So, assuming we _did_ want to participate and it was okay with your village…would that mean getting all dressed up in formal kimonos?" Kurumu asked.

Tsuara nodded. "Yes, of course. It _is_ a traditional ceremony after all."

Both the succubus and the vampire looked over to the human in the room, and it was Moka who beat the other girl to the punch. "You'd like to see something like that, right Tsukune?"

The image that ran through Tsukune's mind made him blush. "T-That might be kind of nice."

Kurumu jumped in and popped the boy's thought bubble as she grabbed into his arm. "But the person you really want to see is me, right Tsukune?"

Over on the sidelines, Yukari sighed dejectedly.

Kokoa looked over to the younger girl. "What's up with you?"

"It's for seventeen year olds, no way I'll be getting in _that _group," she told the vampire before looking over to Kokoa and studying her for a moment. "How come your not all depressed too?"

"Why would I be?"

Yukari looked over to Shuichi then back to Kokoa. "Uh, because you can show off in front of your boyfriend?"

A vein on Kokoa's forehead bulged as she resisted the urge to knock the girl into the next week. When they had spent time together working on Kokoa's article, she had discovered that Yukari was pretty cool, and shared much of the same idol worship that Kokoa had for her big sister; so the little witch was off limits when it came to beatings brought on by bursts of anger.

"Okay, let's get this whole thing perfectly strait," Kokoa told her. "Shuichi is _not_ my boyfriend! Why the hell does everyone keep thinking that?"

"Duh, you're always together," Gin said.

"You look good next to each other," Mizore added.

"Plus your personalities match, what with you being such a tomboy and him being so feminine," Kurumu told them. This earned her a glare from both members of the couple.

Moka was the last of the group, actually thinking of her answer for a moment. "I'd have to say it's his ability to curb your tendency for homicidal rages. Let's face it, not even Mom and Day could do that." The very fact that Kokoa was no longer tying to pick a fight with Moka every day was a miracle. Whatever kind of monster Shuichi was, he must have had some sort of weird mind control power.

Clearing his throat to get everyone's attention, Kurama steered the topic to something a bit less volatile. "Ms Tsuara, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you. Mizore informed us on the way over that your species now needs men to repopulate itself, is this true?"

The older snow fairy stared at the redhead for a moment. "Oh you don't know about-well I supposed that makes sense that you wouldn't know about something like that," she mumbled to herself loud enough for others to hear before addressing the question.

"Yes, that's correct. You see, two-hundred years ago many of the snow women of the Demon World, tired of being hunted for their ability to produce valuable jewels, came to a powerful demon in the hopes that he would remove that ability from them."

Kurama frowned as he added up what he knew of the Demon World to fill in the missing piece of the story. "That would be the demon Shigure, correct?"

Everyone else at the table quieted down and paid attention to the conversation going on in front of them, moving their heads back and forth between the speakers.

A confused stare was all he got from the woman. "To be honest I'm not sure, his name has been lost over time," she said, only adding to Kurama's confusion for a moment before he reasoned out the rest himself before she confirmed his suspicions.

"The process worked, and the snow women that went to the demon could no longer produce hirui stones, however there was a grave consequence that none of them had foreseen," Tsuara continued.

Kurama looked over to Mizore for a moment, then back to the girl's mother. "I'm guessing those consequences were an extremely short lifespan, and the inability to reproduce asexually. Now the older generation is either dead and gone or just barely clinging on, and almost none of them were able to find someone to be with."

Tsuara blinked in surprise "How did you know?"

"Two things," Kurama told her. "The first was the village itself. Although there are several buildings, it is grossly under populated. However, you would have had to have enough people to fill it at one point or building something this size would have been pointless. There's also their condition, despite being abandoned, none of them are dilapidated to show hat they've been empty for long.

"Then there's Mizore," Kurama went on. "I'll admit she told me about the need for male partners, but it's the fact that she's clinging so desperately to Tsukune that gives it away. Ice maidens measure their lives in millennia. If she still lived as long as a normal snow woman, someone with Tsukune's lifespan would be gone in the blink of any eye. She wouldn't get as emotionally attached to him as I've seen she is. The same could be said when it comes to her friendship with Yukari and Kurumu."

"….Did that go about a thousand feet over anyone else's head?" Kurumu asked.

Moka had to nod in agreement, and her confusion just grew when she heard her other self talking to her. "_This isn't good_."

"Hm?" she asked her rosary, not wanting to draw attention to herself.

"_He just mentioned Tsukune's lifespan…the only reason he would say something like that is if he knew Tsukune was human_," the inner-Moka explained. She just hoped no one drew attention to it and she could deal with it later when she was the one on the outside again.

_Well, that's okay right_?" Moka thought to her inner self. _I mean, he's part of the club too, right_?

"_Don't you remember the crime for being human while at school_?" the inner Moka asked. "_Just because we accept it doesn't mean he's going to do it automatically_."

_Well_… Moka tried to think of another explanation. _Just because he thinks Tsukune's going to live forever doesn't mean he knows he's human. Not everything lives as long as vampires_.

"So you figured out what kind of monster Tsukune is?" Kokoa asked. "Mind sharing?"

All of the older newspaper club members flinched, and Mizore quickly stood up to draw attention to herself, then became nervous. "The time! I mean-look at the time, we need to get to bed. The ceremony is at down tomorrow."

"Right!" Moka agreed as she also got to her feet. "Tsukune, why don't you uh, go take a shower, or something. We'll clean up! Come on Kokoa!"

The smaller vampire resented behind ordered around by her false sister, but she supposed it was good manners to do the dishes; and being rude would reflect badly on her in front of everyone.

As everyone shuffled off to make preparations for bed, Kurama took a look at Mizore's mother for a moment. _I wonder, that comment she made…. _

After they had gotten away from the table, Kurumu turned to Mizore and smiled. "Hey, sorry I didn't get a chance to say this sooner, but…thanks for inviting us. You know, you don't really show any of us at the club much affection. But this whole ceremony thing and inviting us…you really are a good friend. So…thanks."

Mizore blinked at the unexpected appreciation. "Oh…well…I…" The girl was cut off by a camera flash.

"Hey guys look she's blushing," Gin said after getting his shot and taking the spotlight off the chronically shy girl.

"WE'RE TRYING TO HAVE A MOMENT HERE!" Kurumu shouted before socking there werewolf in the jaw, the instantly regretting it from the pain she got. "And turn back to your human form when we're inside damnit you'll leave fur everywhere!"

-Later that night-

"Tsukune…Tsukune…wake up Tsukune…"

His name being called from the darkness made Tsukune Aono open his eyes to be greeted by…more darkness. "What that-"

"Shhh." A cold hand grabbed his own. "Come with me Tsukune, I want to show you something."

As the last bits of sleep finally vanished and let his mind clear, Tsukune remembered what was going on. He was in Mizore's village, in her house and had been sleeping in the house's spare room along with everyone else. Well except Mizore, she actually had her own bedroom.

"Mizore?" he mumbled.

"Please come with me. Don't wake the others."

Something in her voice made him stop from just calling out and waking everyone else up. He still couldn't see her, but there was something in Mizore's tone that made him think she was sad; almost as sad as the first day they met.

Against his better instincts, Tsukune got up and let the girl lead him outside the room where his coat and warmer clothes were waiting. "Wha-*yawn* What's going on Mizore?"

"There's something I want to show you, just please…come with me," she asked him hesitantly.

Against his better judgment, Tsukune sighed and went to put his warmer clothes on.

As he left to get some privacy, Mizore turned back to look at the guest room before bowing her head. "I'm sorry everyone."

In side the room, he watched the door slide shut out of the corner of his eye, then rolled over to go back to sleep. _Whatever, it's got nothing to do with me_, Kurama thought.

Several minutes later, he had almost gotten back to sleep when…

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

Kurumu's scream quickly brought everyone out of their various dreams, which was followed by a chorus of angry grumbled when she turned on the lights. "Everybody get up! Tsukune and Mizore are gone!"

"Wha-" Moka stopped to yawn. "Kurumu calm down. Where they would they go this late at night?" More than likely Mizore had just snuck Tsukune off to have some sort of heart to heart romantic chat…she hoped. If that's all it was, Moka was more than willing to let it pass in exchange for the vacation Mizore had all given them.

Yukari gulped. "Oh no…I'll bet Mizore took Tsukune to give him a bunch of Snow Whites!"

Kurama poked his head up from beneath his pillow. "The aphrodisiac?"

_Aphrodisiac?_ Kurumu and Moka thought at the same time as they pictured just what could come from something like that_. _On the television of their minds,Mizore would give Tsukune the flowers, then they would fall to the ground beyond their sight, only to have Tsukune raise his hand to put it back onscreen long enough to show the flower bug falling off its stem.

"Oh crap! That girl would definitely pull something like that!" Kurumu screamed.

Moka turned to the rest of the club. "Come on you guys we've got to stop them!"

"WE DON'T CARE! WE'RE TRYING TO SLEEP!" Gin, Kurama, and Kokoa shouted as they threw Moka, Kurumu, and Yukari out of the bedroom and slammed the door shut behind them.

-Meanwhile-

Tsukune hesitantly followed Mizore through the snow as they headed towards the mountain base where he flowers grew. It was obvious what she was doing. "Hey Mizore, I thought that you're supposed to get these flowers together with everyone tomorrow. Won't they be mad if you skip out on them?"

"You know when I was a kid, I used to sneak into a small human town near the main exit of our barrier," Mizore told him. "One time there, I met a human boy, and we became friends. He was kind of dense, and pretty average in looks but…he was nice, and funny; always talking about he'd become a real man among men some day.

"Then one day, I took him with me to gather these flowers, and I told him what I was," she said. "He screamed, and ran away from me, saying that I'd eat him," she told him as they came to the field of flowers. She knelt down to pick a few. "Ever since then…I've always been afraid I'd end up alone."

Tsukune tried to think of the right thing to say to cheer the girl up. "You shouldn't think about stuff in the past like that. Okay, you're a little distant from everyone, but you're also kind, and you think about your friends a lot."

"Tsukune, there's something else I need to tell you," she said before turning around to hand him a handful of Snow White flowers and push them up to his nose. "After tomorrow, I won't be going back to the academy with the rest of you. The flower ceremony is also where snow fairies are introduced to their husbands in arranged marriages. You see, when one of my kind turns seventeen, we're able to bear children, This is only possible for a sort time compared to humans and most other monsters, so we have to start having children right away."

The snow fairy watched the boy gasp, then draw in more of the flower's pollen. When she saw it was starting to have an effect, Mizore undid her belt, and let her robe drop to the ground. "I'm sorry Tsukune…but this is the only thing I could think of. Even if it's just one night…please…make love to me." _And please, please don't hate me for this_,she mentally begged him as the world seemed to blur_._

-Somewhere Else-

"I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her!" Kurumu shouted as she made her way through the snow with Moka and Yukari. She was angry at everything. At Mizore for the betrayal, at this stupid country for its high winds that prevented her from flying, at Moka and the others for letting Mizore just sneak off, and at herself for actually trusting the ice bitch long enough to get stabbed in the back.

Moka rushed to keep up with Kurumu while dragging Yukari behind her. The young witches legs were much too short to make quick headway in the snow; and the was actually surprised someone as short as Kurumu wasn't having trouble.

"Kurumu wait up," Moka shouted as the succubus started to outpace her. Luckily, it seemed that her words made it through Kurumu's single-minded need to catch up with Mizore before something bad happened, as she stopped at the top of a small hill.

Only, Moka found her theory to be incorrect when she came up to Kurumu's side and saw what the blue-haired girl was looking at. Tsukune was laying face up in a field of white flowers.

When Yukari looked out from behind Moka, she blanched. "Oh boy, I think those are snow white flowers. Did we make it too late?"

"MIZORE, YOU GET YOUR WHITE LITTLE ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!" Kurumu shouted ass he looked around for the other girl.

Yukari looked around the area and frowned. "I don't think she's here."

-Mizore's House-

Once again, Tsukune was in darkness as he heard someone talking in the background.

"Yes I see…I'm sorry she was so much trouble for you. Yes? Oh, that's…wonderful. I…I'll inform the others of the good news," a woman said before he heard the sound of a phone being hung up.

Tsukune opened his eyes, and looked around at everyone who was gathered around his bed, then found Gin and the rest of the Newspaper Club scattered throughout the room.

"Wha…What happened?" he mumbled before Kurumu latched onto him.

"Tsukune we were so worried! Mizore…she didn't…did she…I mean, she didn't, did she?"

"Well his pants were still on, so I'm guessing no," Yukari said as she tried to reason with the succubus; and failed.

"Mizore?" Tsukune wondered aloud before he remembered what happened. They had been alone on the mountain. "I remember, there were these flowers. Then, she pushed me to the ground and got on top of me and…"

Even the people in the back suddenly became interested in the conversation, leaning in closer to hear.

"I remember, she was…crying."

Everyone in the room fell over, with Moka leading the recovery. "We're all wondering what happened and _that's_ what you say? Did you and her do it?"

Tsukune pulled away from the vampire's invasion of his personal space. "No!" he shouted as his face turned red. "We…there was…" Tsukune tried to clear his head and think.

All he could remember was laying there, with Mizore over him, her tears falling down on his face. Then, there was a harsh gust of wind and…a woman?

"Now I remember," Tsukune said. "Mizore was crying. Something was really wrong, and she didn't know what to do. I think she wanted me to find a way out of her marriage, and before anything could happen, a woman appeared over us. Then…sorry, that's where I blacked out."

"Marriage?"

Tsukune looked over to Shuichi. "Yeah. Apparently, snow fairies have to marry when they turn seventeen. That's what this flower ceremony really is."

"And Mizore reasoned that if she had sex with another man the day before her wedding, the scandal might cause it to be called off," Kurama theorized.

As much as he tried, Tsukune couldn't follow Shuichi's logic. It just didn't seem like Mizore to try something like that. "No…I mean, she may have thought of something like that but…she was crying. She couldn't go through with it."

"Neither could you apparently," Tsuara said as she walked over to the boy with a disappointed look on her face. "That was the snow priestess who called. She said that she came across Mizore as some boy was molesting her, and took the girl to her private palace so she could recover. But from what you said and what she said…did you have sex with my daughter after all?"

Tsukune held up his hands in defense. "N-No ma'am, I'd never do something like that!"

"Then you _didn't_ try and save my daughter when she had tears in her eyes?" Mizore's mother demanded in a half angry, half disappointed tone. "Oh my poor girl! Now she's doomed to spend the rest of her life with a man she doesn't love, all because you're probably the one boy on earth who keeps it in his pants when he's not supposed to!"

From behind Tsukune, Kurumu sighed. "Yeah, that's Tsukune for you. I'll admit I'm relived, but then again if he was a bit more of a man I would have gotten him into bed a year ago."

"So who is this snow priestess?" Kurama asked the woman.

Tsuara sighed, "She is the last true snow woman in this land. Gifted with the ability to foretell the future, she was the one who led us to take the deal to alter our bodies and come to the human world. Ever since then, she has ruled over us. She is also the one who decides upon the marriages, using her power of prophecy to insure that the matches will give us children."

"I also take it this is to ensure no males are born from these unions?" Kurama asked.

For a moment the woman looked hesitant, and then nodded. "Yes. Even with our alterations, men born from a snow fairy are cold and violent. We had some after our original move to this land. Even though they were just children, they fought and killed each other until there was only one left. As for the surviving boy, we were put in contact with a group of mercenaries that took him on as an apprentice, and that was the last we saw of him."

"Wait a minute," Moka mumbled before giving Tsuara an accusing stare. "The flower ceremony we were all going to attend…you mean that you were setting us up to go to an engagement party?"

The snow woman let out a guilty chuckle. "Well, yes. But it looks like you don't have to worry about that anymore. You see, the snow priestess also told me she was introducing Mizore to her fiancée tonight. Tomorrow you can all go home, and forget this ever happen. Mizore will stay here to begin her bridal training. I'm sorry for all the trouble this has caused you."

Kurumu slammed her fist down on the table. "Like hell she will!"

Everyone blinked as they turned their attention to the succubus.

"K-Kurumu?" Tsukune stuttered.

The succubus glared at Mizore's mother. "Do you think I'm just going to take an apology for being put through all this crap and just let Mizore run off to enjoy some cushy married life while the rest of us still have to deal with schoolwork?"

Moka smirked, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that really doesn't seem very fair."

"There's no way in hell I'm letting Mizore get married before I do! We'll drag that little snow skank back to the academy kicking and screaming!" Kurumu yelled as she held up a clenched fist. "And if some stupid priestess or dumbass fiancée tries to stop us we'll kick their asses too!"

"Girl, I so want you right now," Gin said right before the succubus punched him in the nose.

"Quit ruining my dramatic moment," she grumbled.

-Meanwhile at the Snow Priestess's Palace-

Mizore slowly regained consciousness and picked herself up. The room she was in was one she hadn't seen before, but it had to be somewhere in the village since everything was made out of ice.

The place was huge, with a ceiling at least fifty feet high and pillars everywhere and with complex ice sculptures adoring nooks in the room. At the front there was a lavish throne, with a lavishly dressed woman sitting on it.

"Hello Mizore, it's nice to finally meet you," she said. "I am the snow priestess, the ruler of this village."

The introduction made Mizore gulp nervously. "What…why did you bring me here?" she asked before pulling herself up to her knees and looking around. "And where's Tsukune? What did you do to him?"

"The boy is no longer your concern," the priestess told her. "You see Mizore, you are a very special girl, one I have been waiting for. On your shoulders now rests the future of our village."

Mizore frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"So is this my bride?"

The man's voice coming from behind her surprised Mizore, and made her turn around as the person who spoke stepped out from the column behind her. He was an older man, at least in his late twenties. He was dressed in a stylish long coat that was much too light for the environment inside of the snow village.

The bride comment made Mizore start to panic to the point her unease crept through to show on her face. "Bride? What's going on?" she demanded, still a bit fearful, but mostly confused.

"My name is Miyabi Fujisaki ," he told Mizore.

"In order to ensure the prosperity of the village, I have formed an alliance with an outside organization," the priestess explained. "To cement that alliance, we have decided to give them the strongest snow fairy of the current generation as a bride. Do not resist us, it's in all our best interests."

The news shattered Mizore's world. "No…please don't do this," she begged in a whisper. If she was being forced to marry this man… _Tsukune_,_ I want to be with Tsukune,_ she thought.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fujisaki come up from behind her before Mizore was hauled to her feet. His grip was like a vice. There was no warmth or caring, just a crushing force that made her arm feel numb. "Be quiet girl."

"As priestess of this land, I now pronounce you man and wife. May your union bring many years of happiness to this village," the snow priestess announced, conducing the ceremony in an instant.

_This isn't happening_, Mizore told herself. Her legs felt weak, and she almost collapsed.

A hard jerk from her 'husband' brought Mizore out of her daze. "Come along dear. It's late, but we still have time to enjoy our wedding night."

-Back at the Snow Village-

Kurama looked at the unconscious forms of his classmates and the overturned tea cups that most of them had knocked over when the drugs had taken effect. He moved some of them out of the way to get a better look at the map of the palace that Tsuara had provided, then finished memorizing it a moment later. Luckily, Kokoa had already gone to bed. Kurama didn't know if the toxin made from the tea would have had the same effect on an unsealed vampires regenerative abilities s it did on Moka's.

Although they had just spent the fast few minutes trying to think of a plan, Kurama could see there was a major problem with its foundation. The plan Mizore's mother had come up with, infiltrating the flower ceremony that was to be held tomorrow. It allowed for the girl to stay in the enemy's hands for a whole night. If the snow priestess really could see the future, then she would detect any such plan and put a stop to it before it had begun by using that night to prepare, or simply get Mizore out of the club's reach before they had time to even leave the house.

There was also the fact that they wanted Kurama to dress in drag to sneak in since the ceremony was for girls only, which was an impossibility as far as he was concerned.

As he turned to leave, Tsuara came into the room and flinched at the sight of everyone else except the redhead being unconscious. "What the-when did you slip something into the tea? I made it myself."

"I didn't put anything in the tea," Kurama explained. "My demonic ability allows me to alter plants at a cellular level. I can even restore dead plants and replicate them from the smallest of samples, such as the additives in water that creates the tea's flavor. It was a simple matter to change the tea into something that would make them pass out."

Tsuara looked at the children, then back to Kurama. "But…_why_?"

"I didn't want them getting in the way of what I have to do, and I couldn't just wait for them to go to sleep." Then he frowned at the woman. "So, I take it you know who I am."

Tsuara snorted at the obvious. "Oh please. For us, spirit detectives are akin to a human's bogyman. Everyone over twenty knows the demon traitor that works for Spirit World on sight. Although I have to admit I never thought that something like you would ever come here."

"Then why not tell everyone?" he asked evenly.

"I was going to at first." The snow woman gave a halfhearted smile. "But now, I need you to get my daughter away from the priestess. She might be the leader of our tribe, but the woman's actions as of late have worried me. Then, she went and stole my daughter from me. After that, I'm more than willing to deal with the devil if it means that my daughter might be spared a life of despair.

"Your real objective has to be something to do with Yokai Academy," Tsuara reasoned before she bowed her head to beg. "The snow village can't mean that much to you. Save Mizore, and in return, I'll stay silent on your infiltration of the school."

Kurama smirked. "The offer is tempting, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

_Damn it_, the snow fairy thought before she stepped back, her mind racing to try and think of what to do. If he didn't buy her silence with Mizore's freedom, Tsuara knew that there was another option for keeping her quiet.

"If you had made that offer a few days ago I probably would have taken it," Kurama told her before sitting down to help put the woman at ease. "But the fact of the matter is, I'm just at that school for the same reason everyone else is…although I'll admit the lessons I'm learning are a bit different.

"Now if you'll excuse me I really must go and rescue your daughter," he said before getting up and walking past her. "And if you want to repay me I'd appreciate a thank you when it's over. You wouldn't believe how many people don't even bother with those these days."

-The Ice Palace-

It had been nearly half an hour since she had been dragged to her bedroom by her new husband. To pass the time, Mizore simply looked out at the window. This was probably the last time she would ever se her home again. She didn't want to forget what it looked like.

"Sorry for taking so long, I was speaking to some of my associates," Fujisaki told her as he came inside the room with a cup of tea in his hand. He stood over her, and looked out the window.

"This place really is beautiful. Well, the physical part of it is absolute crap, but the social structure, a whole society controlled one the word of a single woman because she tells them the future. No hesitation, no resistance, even when people don't want to do what she says, even if it goes against everything they believe, they do it anyway. _That_ is the very definition of perfection."

He took a sip of his tea. "That's why I want this place you see. And it will be mine."

Mizore looked over to the man. _But, the snow priestess said that the villagers would prosper because of this. But he's planning on taking control of the area_? How was that suppose to work?

"Of course I expect the same perfection from you," Fujisaki told her. "Now take that candy out of your mouth. It makes you look childish. You're not a little girl anymore, so you don't need such things."

The command brought Mizore's attention to the place where he'd grabbed her earlier, and she reluctantly obeyed. Childish? A little girl? _Yes, that's what this is_, she told herself as she looked at the candy. _Childhood, when I was still allowed to have happy dreams…_

_Why does it have to be this way?_ Mizore asked herself as she closed her eyes to try and keep from crying. _I don't want to be with this guy!_

"That's better," the man said before grabbing onto her chin and lifting her head up. Once again, there was nothing gentle about it.

Then, he kissed her on the lips. It was just so…_wrong_. There was no gentleness to him, or passion.

This time, Mizore didn't bother hiding her tears.

"Now, let's get to what couples are supposed to do on their wedding night, shall we?

Arms too strong for a body of Fujisaki's size forced Mizore onto the bed. On the way her robe came undone, and her naked body was exposed by the time she was laying down.

_No_.

Fujisaki's jacket fell to the floor, and he undid his belt before forcing himself between her legs. There was no passion in his eyes, lust or anything else. It was like he was doing this, just for the hell of it.

_Please don't._

Mizore closed her eyes as he moved down her neck, kissing it as he went along. She tried to imagine it was Tsukune on top of her. _They were back in the field of snow whites, and he was about to…_

The image shattered when the man let out a grunt and his fingers dug into her shoulder. Reality came crashing down, and reminded her of what was really going on behind her closed eyes. The main was too strong to be Tsukune, and the flowers she was smelling were roses, not snow whites.

"Now remove your hands from the girl or I will remove them from you."

The soft and even voice made Mizore open her eyes. There was a strange plant sticking out of Fujisaki's shoulder. It looked almost like a rose stem, but the thorns were longer than normal and curved like barbs. The flower Mizore could see over his shoulder told her it went all the way through.

A large demonic aura filled the room, and Mizore's breath caught. "Moka!" she sat up, and blinked when it was just Shuichi standing there. Mizore looked around for the vampire, but saw he was the only one else in the room.

"Sorry it took so long to get here, but your scent is a little hard to find a single scent like yours when everyone here is a snow woman too," Kurama apologized without taking his eyes off the man on top of the poor girl. "Although from the looks of things I'd say I showed up just in time."

"And how exactly_ did_ you get in here?" the man on top of Mizore grumbled.

Kurama smirked. "Through the front door. Apparently when someone can see the future, they don't bother investing in security systems, or guards for that matter. It's disappointing really."

He frowned as the man reached for the rose. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Get away from Mizore and let us leave peacefully, and I will remove the plant from your body without harming you."

Mizore watched as Fujisaki frowned at the boy before reaching over to grab the rose from the blossom and pull it out. As he did the stem and thorns elongated tearing a hole in his shoulder big enough to see through to the other side. The man's arm hung limp, and it seemed his other hand was also bleeding from just grabbing the flower.

"Karua would you please deal with this idiot," Fujisaki said loudly.

A form blurred into view from behind Shuichi, the redhead's aura flared a second before Mizore heard the sound of breaking bones. Shuichi went flying to crash into the far wall and became obscured by the debris.

"SHUICHI!"

She looked away from the crash to glace at the newcomer. It was a dark-skinned woman with white hair and a long white gown with matching gloves. The right one was covered in blood.

"Well that's a bit of a mood killer," Miyabi Fujisaki grumbled before he slid off of the girl and looked at his injured shoulder. It would be a little while before he was able to even move the thing again. "If the brat's still alive finish him off then-_what_?"

Miyabi cut himself off when he saw the bloody condition of Karua's hand. The knuckles were red and broken, and the middle two fingers looked in about the same condition. "How did-"

Movement under the rubble turned his attention back to where the intruder was supposed to lying dead. The boy's jacket had been completely shredded by the impact, and underneath there was…tree bark?

"**Armor of the Okunenju**," Kurama explained at the confused man's expression. "I'll be the first to admit that my physical form isn't the most durable, but I can easily supplement such deficiencies with ingenuity. The bark protects me form almost all attacks, and releases a think coating of sap at the opposite point of impact to cushion the blows."

He took out another seed from his hair and grew it into a rose. "So I take it you won't be letting Mizore come quietly then?" Kurama asked as he frowned at the man and the woman who'd managed to sneak up behind him.

Mizore looked back and forth at the standoff while she tried to cover her nudity with her hands. This was not how she ever expected her wedding night to go.

Updated Notes: Chapters 1-5 edited dialogue and selling/grammar fixes.


	5. Chapter 5

Kurumu walked along for a few moments, then looked around. After noticing her position, she frowned. "Ah damnit!"

"What's wrong Kurumu?" Moka asked, suddenly appearing from behind the succubus.

The blue -haired girl looked over to her rival and frowned. "What do you mean what's wrong? Look around us!"

After a moment of searching, Moka looked back to Kurumu. "I don't see anything wrong."

"ARE YOU KIDDING?" Kurumu shouted before pointing above them. "There's no title, that means this is some sort of stupid pre-chapter omake! I HATE THESE THINGS!"

Moka sighed as she looked down at herself. "Oh, that explains why we're naked at least."

The strange comment made Kurumu looked down at herself, and brought out a sigh from the succubus. "This had better have a point other than proving our hair colors are natural."

At the succubus's comment, a letter suddenly appeared in her hands. "What the hell is this?"

"Oh I know!" Moka said excitedly "This must be one of those segments where a question posted in the reviews are answered."

Kurumu looked at the letter for a moment, then threw it onto the floor behind her. "Screw that. If I'm stuck in an omake, I'm gonna go find Tsukune and finally get me some. I find it offensive that a sex demon like me has gone through nearly two series now, and still hasn't gotten laid."

As Kurumu started to walk off, Moka looked down at the letter, then rushed after her to catch up. "Mind of I join you?"

"Meh…three's better in bed than two…_supposedly_. Although isn't it really four of us since the other you is along for the ride?"

"We should probably stop worrying about the particulars and get going before we run into the chapter's title," Moka said before she looked down to the line below her. "DAMNIT!"

Chapter 5: The Rescue

-About ten minutes after Kurama left-

Kokoa opened her eyes and slowly sat up as her body put itself into emergency awakening mode. The reason being was…

"Ah damnit, gotta pee," she mumbled before standing up and heading to the door. _Should have told them vampires and normal food don't mix_. But on the other hand, it wasn't as if there was a fresh supply of human blood around for her to drink; and there was no way in hell she was going to reduce herself to drinking another monster's blood like pseudo-Moka had lowered herself to doing with Tsukune.

She opened the door to the main room where everyone was having their planning session, and froze. Everyone was sprawled on either on the floor or had fallen over at the table. "What the-HEY! WAKE UP YOU IDIOTS!" she shouted, then kicked the chair out form under Moka to make sure the other vampire came to.

As soon as she hit the ground, Moka came awake with a jerk. "Ow! What was that for?" she whined while rubbing her posterior.

"Oh Tsukune you're so bi-wha?" Kurumu mumbled before she slowly raised her head off the table, coming out of her dream. "Hey what's goin on."

Yukari grumbled about being pulled out of her dream of finally tracking JK Rowling down to slap her with a lawsuit, while Gin picked himself off the floor where he had been curled up, and Tsukune simply got his head up to look at what as going on before pointing out the obvious. "Did we fall asleep?"

"I thought you guys were supposed to be planning our attack for tomorrow!" Kokoa yelled. Of course being the only one who got any sleep, it would probably be up to her to do all the work.

Well, her and the real Moka. There was no way she was going into the big frozen castle without at least one other decent fighter.

Moka blinked to try and clear her eyes. "I *yawn* guess so." After taking a deep breath, she stood up and tried to put on as determined a face ass he could to help inspire the others. "Come on you guys pull it together, Mizore's counting on us!"

"Wait a minute," Kokoa mumbled as she looked over the room to do a headcount. "There's Boobies, Doggy, Whiney, Kiddy, and…Tsukune, who is rally just too average all around to deserve a nickname…anybody see Shuichi?"

Kurumu yawned. "You try the bathroom?"

Kokoa blinked, then blushed. "Actually…be right back." The little vampire zipped off. There was a sound of a flush, and then she ran back two minutes later. "No he's not in the-"

"Did you wash you hands?" Moka asked suddenly.

The other vampire growled at her sister, then stormed off. From the kitchen everyone could hear the sound of the tap being turned on full blast.

"Wait a second, if vampires are hurt by water," Kurumu mumbled.

Kokoa let out a scream, then stomped back into the room with smoking hands. "Happy?" she grumbled at Moka.

The whole scene made Tsukune frown as he thought of something. "Wait a second, then how does Moka get by all day without…you know?"

"That's a good question," Yukari mumbled as she tried to think just _what_ a vampire did for hygiene. For once, she was stumped.

Moka frowned at her two friends and the implications that came with their musings. "There _is_ such a thing as water free soap you guys. It's not like I walk around all day spreading germs."

"HEY!" Kokoa shouted. "Has anyone else picked up on the fact that Shuichi is _gone_?"

Kurumu looked over to the vampire. "You sure he just didn't go to bed after putting us all to sleep with his rescue plan?" A plan she couldn't seem to remember consequently; which probably meant it was mind-numbingly boring and doomed to failure anyway.

The question made Kokoa direct her anger at the girl with the big breasts. "I just came from here! He's _gone._"

"And so's the snowmobile," Gin said after looking out the window.

Tsukune frowned while putting two and two together with the information that was given. "Guys, you don't think he went to try and rescue Mizore on his own, do you?"

Kokoa rolled her eyes. "No way, Shuichi actually has common sense." Unlike pretty much everyone else in her class, or Moka's for that matter.

"Well there was that time he went into the forest to get the dorian fruit," Kurumu recalled.

"And I seem to remember him stepping in-between Kokoa and a pair of powerful monsters during the entrance ceremony," Gin added.

"Then there's the fact he stands up to _you_ all the time," Moka told Kokoa. "Uh…no offense."

Kokoa's shoulders slumped as the evidence piled up against her. _Crap. Now that I think about it, he really would do something stupid like that_. Oh he'd have some rational explanation for it, like one guy could sneak in and out easier than a group, but that didn't make it any less stupid.

She sighed, then headed for the door. "Well what's everyone standing around for? Let's go save him, and drag the snow girl's ass out of the fire while we're at it," Kokoa added as an afterthought.

"About that," Tsukune said before pointing to the window that Gin was standing next to. "How're we going to that without transportation? None of us will get there in time. He took the only snowmobile."

The rest of the group seized up upon hearing the reality of the situation, then looked outside where Tsukune was pointing to see that the spot where the aforementioned vehicle was indeed gone.

"Well I could run there in a few minutes," Gin said. "But if all that's left is a dog sled that we can't use, then it'll take hours for the rest of you to get there on foot. Kurumu can't fly with that snow storm going on outside, and I'm not even sure Yukari should be going at all with as deep as the snow is getting. She'll be covered up to her waist."

Tsukune blinked. "There's a dog sled?"

"Yeah there's one out next to where the snowmobile used to be parked," Gin answered before pointing to it. Then, he frowned as he saw the look in everyone's eyes as they stared at him.

Then he looked to the sled, then back to the group, the sled, and finally the group again as Moka and Tsukune looked at him with hopeful, pleading eyes. "No way in hell."

"But Gin-" Tsukune managed to get out before the werewolf cut him off.

"You are _not _hooking me up to that thing so I can drag your buts through the snow. Besides, I can probably only fit two people on it, three tops. Who's gonna stay behind."

"Duh. Like it's _not_ going to be Mr and Ms useless over there," Kokoa said as she indicated Yukari and Tsukune with her palm.

"Hey!" Yukari griped.

Gin frowned. "That still doesn't mean I'm doing it!"

After considering everything for a moment, Kurumu sighed in defeat. If Gin wasn't going to volenteer to do it, she would have to use her last resort. "Then you leave me no choice but to use my charms on you Gin," she said before standing up and looking Gin right in the eye. "You'll take us to save Mizore…and I suppose we can snag Kokoa's idiot boyfriend while we're there," she added as an afterthought.

"He's not my boyfriend," Kokoa grumbled.

Tsukune blinked as he realized what was going on. "Wait a second Kurumu, I thought you promised never to use those powers-"

"And I'll let you grope me for a whole two minutes when we get back," she grumbled to the werewolf. Mizore was _so_ gonna pay for this!

A fiery resolve sprang to life in Gin's eyes as his face took on a determined look and he steped forward to strike a heroic pose. "Saddle me up, we've gotta go save us some club members."

-The Snow Palace-

"Red hair…and the ability to manipulate plants…that would make you the demon Kurama, correct?" the man asked with a frown.

"Well it's nice to know my reputation will actually work for me, for a change," Kurama added as an aferthough. "Surrender now, and the woman next to you can go free."

The man smirked. "Oh, and what about me?"

"Considering I found you between the legs of my friend over there with tears in her eyes," Kurama began. "I'm afraid there's this thing inside of me that will just bug me to death if I let this one go. Now do you have any last words before I turn you into fertilizer?"

Kurama frowned as he studied his opponents. The man had a disabled arm, but his left hand might still be useable despite the damage it had taken from grasping the razor-sharp rose petals.

It was the woman Karua that troubled him. Destructive power and speed aside, her aura was…strange. It seemed bound in a similar way to Moka's, but at the same time largely unrestrained. Then there was the other thing about her…

Karua yawned loudly and rubbed her eyes before looking over to her boss with a droopy expression. "Mr Fujisaki you know it's late. I was just about to get changed and go to bed; this is way past normal working hours."

"You're an assassin, you don't get to just punch a clock," the main yelled in a rush before pointing to Kurama with his bloody hand. "So start assess-assissass-assassass…JUST KILL HIM ALREADY!" he shouted in anger after mangling the word assassinating several times.

The dark-skinned woman flinched at the command, then her mouth started to tremble. "Y-You don't have to sound so mean! WHAAAAA!" she replied before throwing her head back and breaking out into tears.

Although it went against his sensibilities, he opening was one he couldn't pass up. _And that's my cue to leave_, Kurama thought as he inched over to Mizore's bed. "Shirayuki, I think it's time for us to go."

Everything happened in an instant.

The woman Karua blurred forward towards Kurama and struck out with her undamaged hand with a chop that he avoided by twisting away from her in the direction of the blow to let it miss by centimeters. With his rose hidden from the woman, Kurama made some minor adjustments to its structure before he finished the 180 degree turn of his roundabout dodge and struck out with both hands.

A screen of rose petals guided by his aura surrounded Kurama in a defensive spiral while he flicked an acorn under the bed. The woman counted with a punch from her damaged hand, but cut it short and jumped away before the petals could multiply and gain enough momentum to do more than a few superficial cuts.

With the extra breathing room, Kurama fed the acorn under Mizore's bed his demonic energy to grow it into an oak tree with reinforced bark that expanded to Kurama's needs, blocking off the half of the room with the with the strangers and carrying Mizore's bed towards Kurama, and the window.

It only took both of his enemies a few seconds to start breaking through all the branches, which was rather impressive as Kurama began re-growing them as soon as they were damaged, but by then he was at the window with his arm around the snow fairy and a leaf from the tree in hand. "Good night all," Kurama taunted before kicking away from the window and expanding the leaf in his hand to act as a small glider to carry him to the ground before covering the window exit by having a branch grow through it and continue until it filled the entire hole in the wall.

As soon as they were outside, Kurama gritted his teeth as the cold instantly drained most of his body's warmth away. _Without some sort of protection from the elements, it might be the weather that finishes me before anything else._ He took a look at the girl just hanging limp while he held onto her wrist. There was a small flash of anger that despite her nudity, she wasn't feeling a bit of the freezing cold's bite.

The second they were close enough to the ground, Kurama let go of the glider and turned his attention back towards the window that they had jumped out of. The woman Karua took a look around, then focused in on them before stepping of the edge of the window ledge. On the way down, she reached back to dig her hand into the wall of the palace, slowing her descent before she kicked off and landed not far away from the other two demons.

Up in the palace, Miyabi looked down on the scene, and then went back inside the bedroom. He had more important things to do than watch this play out. He needed to get the job done while Karua was busy holding off the redhead.

If she lasted long enough, he supposed that he should retrieve her afterwards. The commander might get angry with him if her daughter ended up being used as a sacrificial lamb.

"Could you at least try to hide your aura?" Kurama grumbled to the girl sitting on her knees at his feet.

Mizore didn't even bother looking up. Kurama had to strain just to hear her words in the howling wind. "You shouldn't have come. It was all…for nothing."

The comment made from frown down at her. "Yes well, I'm sure you'll change your mind the day you actually give away your virginity instead of having it taken from you."

"It's too late for that." she replied.

Kurama ignored the overly emotional girl in favor of the other woman coming up on them. He reached up to rub his arms in an attempt to keep warm and frowned at Karua. "You mean to pursue us then?"

"Those are my orders," she replied with some unease in her voice.

"I see your still crying," Kurama told her as he prepared to execute his contingency plan. "I didn't know people like you were so emotionally fragile."

Karua continued forward at her slow pace. "That is my atonement for the lives I must take."

"In that case, save your tears. You won't have to worry about killing us," Kurama assured her before triggering the trap that had used the last few seconds to burrow underneath the woman.

Two sets of fangs sprang up from beneath the ground to form a single circle of teeth around the woman. "Did you honestly think I didn't plan on someone coming after me?" the former fox demon asked before the rest of the carnivorous plant sprang from the ground and closed its jaws to swallow Karua whole. With its prey trapped, the plant brought itself all the way out of the ground and rested its body on the snow. Its multiple tendrils spread out to support it, while the fruits that gave the bore the things name rested under what mould have been considered its chin, had it been a real face.

The appearance of the exotic plant seemed to bring Mizore out of her daze for a moment. She looked at the strange plant, and even stood up a bit to try and back away from it. "W-What the hell is that thing?"

"**Monster devouring Dorian**," Kurama explained before looking back to the girl. "Don't you remember the first day of school and our trip to the forest? How it was strange that our group didn't encounter any dangerous plant life? One of my demonic abilities allows me to control plants, even these kind." Although those did take a bit more power than those of the human world variety.

The plant rocked back and forth a bit, but the woman remained trapped inside. Kurama continued to rub his arms for warmth as he explained to Karua her situation, assuming that she could hear him at the moment. "I'm afraid that I grew this plant for the purpose of containing many people, so the dorian's stomach very flexible. No matter how hard you strike it, the plant will simply stretch to absorb the impact with no real damage. It's over."

Kurama turned back to check on Mizore before he felt a flare of demonic energy coming from the oversized fly trap. A trio of dark, curved blades came out of the dorian's stomach, then withdrew for a moment before several more sliced through the plant to create an opening for the woman to step exit the damaged fruit.

The Karua that came out of the dorian was not the same as the woman that had been swallowed. Her right arm had changed. Instead of a humanoid hand and arm, it had become a collection of seven batwing connected to her shoulder by a grotesque mass of twisted muscle. Judging by how it had cut through his plant, the edges of the wings were also razor sharp.

"Your speed, strength, that transformation, and the fact one of your cross earrings is now missing," Kurama summarized, "you're a vampire then?"

Karua nodded her head once before answering in a clam voice. "Yes. Allow me to introduce myself properly. I apologize for not doing so earlier, but duty outweighed edict. My name is Karua Shuzen. It's an honor to meet you, Mr Kurama."

Kurama watched as the woman made a formal bow while he digested her words. "Shuzen? Are you any relation to Kokoa Shuzen?"

Surprisingly, the woman's face brightened. "You know little Kokoa?"

"We attend the same school," he explained stoically.

"Oh that's nice? Are you friends?" she asked before standing up and tapping her chin. "Well you must be if you asked me about her."

Mizore looked over to the vampire. "Actually, they're going out."

The vampire gasped and became excited. "_Really_?" she asked before her face became serious, and she bowed her head. "Please take good care of my little sister."

"WE ARE NOT A COUPLE!" Kurama shouted. How anyone could actually think that he and Kokoa had _any_ sort of relationship, Kurama had no idea. The idea was just…creepy.

Mizore waved off his objections. "Don't mind him, they're just shy about it," she assured the other woman.

"Whose side are you on?" he asked Mizore with a frown. "And you, shouldn't you be trying to kill me? Or at least backing off because of my supposed relationship with your little sister?"

The vampire sighed then stood up before looking at him again with tears threatening to fall again. "Sorry, but I _am_ a professional. Personal thoughts and feelings don't really factor into things when I'm doing my job. I don't think you should be too worried though, I know my chances against someone who could kill Uncle Karasu are rather slim."

_I wouldn't quite say that_, Kurama thought to himself as he calculated his chances.

Physically, the vampire was by far the superior of them. Although Kurama's body was on par with an athletic human's, it _was_ a human body and had human limitations. Even if he were to use his demonic aura to try and strengthen his resilience or increase his speed, there was only so much his muscles could take before breaking down from the strain. Karua didn't suffer from such frailties, she could push her body well beyond his current limits.

_Then there is the cold to consider_, Kurama told himself. He didn't know the effects it would have on the vampire, but without something to keep him warm, Kurama knew his reaction time would be stunted exceptionally. Not to mention what would happen if he took too long. Freezing to death was a real possibility.

_And the weather_. That was the real debilitating factor in this battle. With the howling winds, he wouldn't be able to mount much of a long-range offense.

"I don't suppose you're done with whatever the hell it is that's paralyzed you?" Kurama asked as he looked back to the snow girl to see she was still simply sitting in the ground. He put all his attention back to the vampire. _Of course not_.

Kurama quickly reviewed his options.

_Despite the fact that my opponent is faster and stronger than me, I can't attempt to counter by limiting her movement with my usual counter thanks to these high winds and snowfall_. While he could guide the rose petals, the high winds would slow them down considerably, and the cold would greatly increase the amount of power it would take to keep them alive.

_Regenerating the dorian plant would only be a waste of energy_. With that arm, she could easily counter any attack from the demon plant, if it could even catch her. Once the thing was above ground it was pretty much useless.

_Basic weaponry will allow me to keep out of her reach, but I doubt it will be enough to let me finish her in time_. That arm of the vampire's had a big enough arc to it to act as both a weapon and a shield. It could easily destroy Kurama's rose whip or even a barrage of thrown weapons. On top of which, the longer he fought, the worse off he'd be.

_A death plant would do too much damage_. She _was_ Kokoa's older sister. Just killing the woman wasn't an option.

There _was_ another option, but Kurama threw it aside. He was nervous that if it came down to a real life threatening situation the choice would be taken away from him thanks to the heat of the moment, but that was then and this was now. _Besides, I doubt I'll care enough about Mizore to even bother with saving her_.

_So in the end, all I can do is stall for time and try to think of something better to do_, Kurama reasoned. If he waited, an opening might present itself. The only question was: how long would it take? The cold obviously wasn't affecting the vampire, but he had…fifteen…twenty minutes at the most before the cold became debilitating.

Recalling the woman's earlier words, Kurama took out another seed from his hair to grow a rose. "Did you say Uncle Karasu?" he asked. "I suspected that he was a vampire." The guy did dress all in black and had color-changing hair after all. "But didn't know he was connected to the Shuzen family."

"Only by living arrangements," Karua explained. "Nearly every vampire operating in Japan is connected to our family in some way. However, the Shuzen family lost contact with him until he and Bui were seen at the Dark Tournament."

Kurama smirked. "That's strange, as I don't remember any vampires in the audience during the final rounds." Although such resilient monsters might have been among some of the survivors that didn't get killed by Toguro, if they had managed to survive Karasu's explosion and Hiei's dragon that is.

"Oh, no one in the family went to something that…low brow," Karua said after a moment to think of how to say it politely. "But seeing as how you're here and he's not, it's obvious that you either killed him, or Bui. But with Karasu's personality, I'm betting he fought you."

The last bit of the fight replayed itself in Kurama's mind…

"_For the first time in the history of the Dark Tournament, we have a winner's who's dead and a looser who's…not_."

"Excuse me, but is this enough pre-fight banter?" she asked. "I'm an assassin so I don't talk to my opponents much before trying to kill them."

"I suppose so," Kurama replied.

Karua charged forward but was forced to stop and used her wing-arm to counter an attack by Kurama as he swung a rose whip, cutting it into several pieces. He created three more roses in his hand, and hurled them like darts, which the vampire also managed to intercept with her morphed arm.

As soon as his roses were destroyed, Kurama quickly fed his energy into the severed pieces of his whip to wrap around her legs on its own while he guided the rose petals to slice at her body.

It lasted good two second before the vampire punched her human hand into the snow to create a small shockwave that kicked up enough of the stuff to interfere with the petals. Then Karua jumped back, cutting the thorny vines and freeing her legs while she was in the air before she quickly moved away from their remains and advanced again at a roundabout angle.

This time when Kurama launched a volley of rose darts, Karua launched herself over them and forward to close the ground between them in a light leap. With the woman close enough to his body that he didn't have to extend his aura too much to guide his attacks, Kurama pulled Mizore closer and surrounded the two of them with a defensive screen of rose petals with enough force behind them to punch through any obstacles. The screen sliced through the vampire's human hand several times before she jammed her inhuman arm into the ground and used it to pull herself back before the damage became such that she would loose her arm.

Kurama repeated his earlier attack with the whip and dart combination, with the same results. The vampire got a few scratches that meant nothing than a bit of blood running down her legs, and she was pushed back until she had lost the ground she gained in her charge.

In the end, it was a simple delaying tactic that only worked in the vampire's favor. Every moment brought Kurama closer to freezing to death, but the vampire lost nothing. Even though he could more accurately gauge her speed than when the fight started, Kurama still had nothing strong enough to counter it.

Once she was back on the ground again, Karua looked at her opponent and sighed. "Excuse me, but is something wrong?" she asked. "Pardon my rudeness, but I was really expecting a much better showing from someone of your reputation."

The quick conversation gave Kurama a chance to rub his arms to help with the circulation. "Oh come now, is there anything wrong with letting you think you're doing a good job? It would be kind of cruel for me to just finish the fight as soon as it started."

"No, that's not it," the vampire said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear your suffering from the onset of hypothermia. You do know that you won't be able to attack me if your body goes numb. Not that I'm complaining, but it seems a rather roundabout way to go through a fight."

_I need to change tactics_ _or this is all as good as over_, Kurama reasoned as he watched Karua circle him while he worked to keep himself between the vampire and Mizore. _But with everything the way it is, I'm stuck on the defense_. He frowned as the vampire prepared to attack again, and ran through his list of options to try and find an alternative.

_I could drop an acorn into the snow and have it prepare something to entangle her while underground_, Kurama reasoned. But after what he had seen back in the palace, it would take too long to create a bark hard enough to counter that wing-arm.

_Bamboo then? No, too much damage_, he told himself as he pictured the woman skewered by over a dozen such lances. Any more wouldn't be enough to stop her.

_Garlic maybe_… Were vampires even allergic to garlic?

-Back at Mizore's house-

Tsukune looked at the steaming cup of tea in front of him and sighed. "I don't see why I couldn't go too."

Across the table from him, Yukari resisted the urge to pull out her wand and drop something heavy on Tsukune's head. "Are you crazy or something? Between the choice of sneaking into a dangerous place filled with who knows what, and hanging out with a genius, cute, and energetic girl like me, you want to go to the dangerous place?"

The rather harsh summary of his decision made Tsukune flinch. "It's not like that Yukari, it's just…I'm worried about Mizore…and Moka. I just…I hate not being able to do anything to help them!"

The little witch rolled her eyes and sighed. "Oh yeah, help them how?"

"Well, I can fight now," Tsukune told her. "Moka gave me her blood, remember?"

That particular fact seemed to make Yukari even more disturbed in Tsukune's eyes. "Yeah, and every time you use that power, you risk turning into a bloodthirsty monster; and I'm not talking about the word in its generalized species term either. Plus, it's a stealth mission. Kurumu can fly, and the vampires are _vampires, _Moka may not show it, but her skills go further than just beating the crap out of people. She would easily be able to locate people by nothing more than their aura and just avoid them.

"I hate to admit it, but we wouldn't have been much use other than added weight for Gin to drag, and two more people for the guards to spot."

Tsukune sighed. "Look, it's just something you wouldn't understand."

The offhand comment seemed to anger the little witch even more. "You mean the fact that girls are still doing all the heavy lifting for you even after Moka shared some of her blood with you makes you feel like less of a man? I hope it's just your bruised ego, and not something stupid like that 'I want to protect Moka' talk you used to go on about last year. Because if its that, I'm going to hit you with the heaviest thing I can find."

"Uh Yukari, are you okay…you seem a bit…angrier than usual," he mumbled. For a minute Tsukune had a very horrid thought, but…she wasn't _that _old yet, was she?

"I get cranky when I'm up till 1:30 and have to wait for my friends to come back from certain doom because the guy that's supposed to replace e as the brains of the operation does something stupid," Yukari grumbled. "Then there's the fact that you want to be stupid and risk you life for the sake of your male ego."

The last comment made Tsukune blink. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on Tsukune, I'm the _smart_ one, remember?" Yukari asked rhetorically. "I could tell from day one you didn't like the idea of girls saving you all the time. Now you can _maybe_ throw a decent punch every now and then, and you think you can just go charging off at the front of the group instead of hiding behind inner-Moka like before, despite the fact you have no idea how to work your powers."

Tsukune tried to defend himself. "That's not true, I can help Moka and the others!"

"Like last Tuesday?"

The comment made Tsukune blush as he remembered the day when it came time to restock the club supply room. "Well, that was…different. Lifting boxes isn't fighting so, my powers didn't kick in."

"And Wednesday in gym class?"

Tsukune blushed as he remembered when the couch decided they needed to spend the day experiencing human world sports. With his human abilities, Tsukune had been the worst of the players. "Well that doesn't count. Stuff like that isn't really threatening."

"And Thursday?"

Those memories made him sweat. "T-Those were just high school bullies. It wasn't a life or death fight, or anything…"

"That's my point!" Yukari yelled. "Moka gave you her blood, but you can't _do_ anything with it unless your life is in danger, and even when you can, the second your adrenaline stops your powers cut off. You've got no control over it. I don't even want to think what would happen if you got hit or something _before_ Moka's powers kicked in and someone just obliterated your frail human body! But since you only care about your stupid little go, go ahead and get yourself killed when the next problem comes up. See if I care!"

When the little with was done shouting, she looked at her tea for a moment before finishing it in one gulp, then storming off towards her room. "I _was_ going to keep you company, but the heck with it. Since I actually believe in Moka, I'm just going to bed. Wake me when everyone gets back so I can yell as Shuichi for being an idiot."

Once she slammed the door, Tsukune slid down in his chair from all the feelings weighing don on him. Was his faith in Moka really so weak that it shattered whenever he wasn't looking over her shoulder. He squeezed he Rosary in his hand and sighed.

_Note to self, next late-night crisis, make sure Yukari gets to bed on time_.

-Meanwhile-

"MUSH!"

**THWACK**!

"MUSH!"

**CRACK**!

"I am not a dog damn it, stop whipping me!" Gin shouted back at the shortest person on the sled as Kokoa drew back her whip for another bout of encouragement, then decided she had better things to do before throwing it away. _Wish I could have brought Ko_. Unfortunately, the bat weighed the same no matter what form it was in, and they needed to travel light.

From her place at the sled, Kurumu leaned back and over to Moka's ear and whispered so the other vampire couldn't hear. "You know, she's pretty good with that whip. You think she's been getting some practice in?"

Moka looked over to the succubus with her red eyes, then over her shoulder back to Kokoa. "The image that brings to mind is pretty disturbing, so…yeah, probably."

"What're you two talking about back there?" Kokoa shouted over the wind.

"Hey Kokoa, are you into dominatrix fantasies?" Moka yelled.

The blunt question coming from her big sis nearly made the younger vampire fall off the sled. She crawled back to the top and glared at her sister. "I'm starting to like the fake Moka better."

Kokoa grabbed on tight to the sled, then looked back to the direction of the priestess's ice palace. She could feel a massive demonic aura that was comparable to her sister's in size not too far ahead. _That's not good_.

When this whole mess started Kokoa had hoped Shuichi would have at least been able to sneak into the place without any trouble. Despite her being a vampire, Kokoa always had trouble just finding the guy when he was in the same room as her by his aura.

"Can't you run any faster you stupid dog?" Kokoa shouted to the monster pulling their sled.

Gin looked back to his noisiest passenger. "I'm a wolf! And if you want to complain then get off and walk! I'd like to see how fast you run in the middle of a snowstorm!"

This turned out to be a bad idea, as something in the snow managed to trip the werewolf up, and sent the group flying through the air when the sled hit the same rock that tripped Gin. Moka readjusted herself in midair to land on her feet, Kurumu spread her wings and kept close to the ground to avoid being blown away by the winds, and Kokoa landed face first in the snow deep enough so that only her waist and legs could be seen.

_Well least I'm not in a skirt_, the younger vampire thought before she felt someone grab onto her foot and pull her out of the snow.

With Kokoa freed, Moka tossed her into the air enough so that the short redhead could flip herself over midair and look at the scene in front of them. "W-What the hell?"

When she had started heading to Shuichi's rescue, Kokoa had been expecting to knock out a few snow women, take down their stupid queen or whatever the hell was supposed to be ruling this place, beat him up for marking her worry, then go back to bed and try to get some sleep before the sun came back up.

What she _hadn't _expected was to see was her second older sister in a snow fairy village.

"Big sister Karua, what are _you_ doing here?" Kokoa demanded after regaining her nerve.

The older vampire looked away from her opponent for a moment and over to the familiar face. She blinked at the familiar blurs, then wiped away her tears to get a better look. "Little Kokoa?" she looked over to the other vampire standing beside the shorter one, "and Moka too?"

Karua gasped when she noticed the color of Moka's hair. "Oh Moka, your rosary is gone! That's amazing!"

"Uh…yeah," the middle sister agreed hesitantly, "but more importantly…" She pointed over to the assortment of wings sticking out of Karua's shoulder. "What the hell is _that_?" She remembered hearing a few rumors about Karua being able to use her transformation abilities for useful changes to her from when they were all still living together, but Moka had never imagined something like what she was seeing right now.

Karua looked over to her transformed arm then rolled her eyes. "I know it's a little weird, but you should see how well this configuration cuts! Or is it slices? Well, more like dices considering the amount of times I can hit someone with a single attack."

From her place behind the two younger vampires, Kurumu folded her wings up and stomped her foot down; which was much less attention getting than she thought it would be thanks to all the snow. "Hey! Would someone tell me what the hell is going on here? Who's the new freaky bat-arm lady? Why the hell is Shuichi's skin a light shade of blue? AND WHY THE HELL IS MIZORE NAKED?"

"Well to answer your questions in order," Moka began evenly, "that woman is Karua Shuzen our older sister, the third eldest in our family. Since he's not wearing his jacket I'm betting Shuichi is freezing to death, and…quite frankly, I don't even want to guess about Mizore."

"I was…defiled."

The newly arrived Yokai Academy students minus Gin, who after running a marathon in the freeing cold had decided that he'd done his job and could now take a quick nap, were caught off guard and stepped back. "WHAT?"

From his spot crouched on the ground, Kurama looked away from the work he had begin when the others showed up and over to the naked girl behind him for a moment. "Oh for crying out loud, it was a kiss! Quit being so dramatic. I got you out before her boss was able to do anything more."

"Of course that still doesn't answer _my_ earlier question of WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE BIG SISTER," Kokoa shouted as she pointed to Karua. "The only reason you ever leave the house is because someone has hired you for a job. So, who're you here to kill?"

Kurumu looked over to the youngest vampire nervously. "Kill?"

Kokoa frowned back at the succubus. "We're vampires, the vast majority of us aren't are cute as my big sister, or as disciplined as me."

_I think you got that backwards_, Kurumu thought as she glanced back and forth between two girls.

"The majority of us work for the underworld in some aspect or another," Kokoa continued. "We even work for humans sometimes, if they already know about us and pay enough." In fact the biggest supplier of their contracts were a group of humans based in Japan called the Black…something. Since she had never wanted to go around killing people for money, Kokoa never really paid that much attention to her extended family's activities beyond what she overhead every now and then back at the mansion.

"I'm here under orders from Mother," Karua told Kokoa. "You shouldn't have run away after Moka left baby sister. I'm afraid you've missed out on a lot. Our family is moving up in the world, thanks to Fairy Tale."

Kurama filed the name away for later, and decided to use the opening to try and gleam more information. "Fairy Tale? Is that the name of the organization Miyabi belongs to as well? Tell me, why are you here in the village." Without tears that turned into valuable gems, Kurama couldn't understand why someone would want this place.

There was the barrier that hid it from the rest of the world, but those could be duplicated easily enough with enough time and effort. Plus, he doubted that anyone would want such a barren place as the Snow Village when there were probably better places to set up shop.

The mention of her organization's name by the redhead caused Karua to flinch. "Oh dear, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that to you. Now I really can't let you live. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to finish you off now instead of just letting the cold do it for me." She took a step towards Kurama.

With the casual threat from her elder sister brought Kokoa into action. She reached for her bat, then winced when she remembered that it had been left back at the snow woman's house because it would have slowed them down too much. Fighting Karua unarmed was practically suicide, but if they didn't do anything…

"Hey Sis, what do you think our chances are of taking her if we double-team her?" Kokoa asked hesitantly. "…to be honest, I'm a little scared."

"I was thinking we should just stand by and wait till it's all finished," Moka replied without taking her eyes off the scene in front of her.

Kokoa frowned at Moka. For anyone else, they would have chalked up Moka's response as cold-hearted, but Kokoa could tell when her sister was nervous. "Hey, I thought the pink you was supposed to be the coward." Then she pointed over to Mizore, "don't you want to save your friend over there?"

"I'm agreeing with the kid here Moka," Kurumu said as she looked over the vampire's shoulder. "I know you're probably rusty what with the lack of life-threatening situations on a daily basis back as school since we've been able to avoid a lot of that crap this year somehow, but now would be a good time for some ass kicking vampire action." If Kokoa and Moka kept their sister busy, Kurumu was pretty sure she could swoop in and haul Mizore and Shuichi out of danger. The added weight might even make it possible to fly away, even in the blizzard.

Moka let out a growl at her companions' obliviousness to the situation. "Why don't the two of you take a look at the scene in front of us."

With the vampire that was supposed to be on her side getting riled up, Kurumu sighed and looked back over to where everyone else was. "Let's see…Mizore's naked, Shuichi's couched down in front of her freezing to death, and your big sister is standing there with a freaky-looking arm getting ready to kill them. Why can't you do that anyway?"

"As if I'd lower myself to alter my perfect form by…_growing_ wings," Moka replied, disgusted at the thought of taking on the appearance of a bat, even if it _was_ just her arm. She didn't notice the girl behind her that the girl who _did_ grow wings giving her a dark glare. "A vampire would only do that if they had no other option other than defeat."

Kokoa crossed her arms and nodded in agreement at her sister's words.

"Then there's the fact we've been standing here for a good two minutes, and Karua hasn't done more than take a single step towards her opponent," Moka continued. "When you put that together with all the visual clues, it's pretty obvious that she's the one who's loosing."

"You're kidding rig-" Kokoa cut her sarcastic question off as she took a closer look at the battlefield. Karua had multiple cuts on her remaining humanoid arm, as well as several gashes running along her legs that could be seen through her torn dress.

"Okay, that's not right." Kokoa's terrifying older sister that creeped the hell out of her was _loosing_ to _Shuichi_?…_**Shuichi**_?

Karua looked up from the ground and to her opponent. "When did you-"

"D-Do y-you honesty think I j-just stood here while you ch-chatted it up with your sisters?" Kurama asked through chattering teeth. He clenched his jaw shut to keep his voice steady. "In my present form, there is no way for me to match your strength or speed. Although, our auras are comparable, the environment we're in limits my options as far as weaponry, unless I have the time to prepare for it; time you just gave me with your sisterly banter. Now just stand down, and we can all go our separate ways. The plants may have been modified for cold weather, but they won't survive for more than a few hours without my demonic energy."

_What is he_- Kokoa cut her own train of thought off as she looked at the ground and extended her honed senses to detect demonic energy. What she felt nearly made her collapse in shock. For nearly fifty meters out in all directions, the ground was saturated in Shuichi's aura. _This…this is impossible! _It would have taken someone with enough energy to match Moka to do something like that.

After examining the distance between them, Karua started crying again. For a moment, it had actually looked like everyone was gong to get out of this alive. "I'm sorry, but I don't need to cross that much ground to reach you." Then, she jumped into the air towards Kurama with her winged-arm ready to strike.

"Yeah, I figured that," Kurama mumbled before he took out another acorn and tossed it at the vampire. The seed quickly grew into a twisted tree, with branches that looked more like moving tendrils a normal plant that moved to entangle the vampire.

_Ah crap_, Karua thought as the odd seed became a mass of wood to block her path that tried to grab onto her. It was easily cut down by her winged arm, but the force needed to slice through the dense object stopped her forward momentum, and left Karua to fall to the ground below as she felt her opponent focus most of his demonic aura that was in the ground into the area directly beneath her.

"**Blades of Grass**."

Below, Karua watched as hundreds of green grass blades poke their tips up from the snow and form an organic spike trap. She drew in on herself to try and minimize the damage, then grit her teeth when she felt the impact.

A dozen, dozen tiny green swords pierced her flesh along her legs, arms, and even her stomach despite Karua's attempts to protect herself by rolling up into a cannonball-like from.

He waited for a few seconds, then ten, and finally a full thirty before cutting his power to the surrounding grass. With the vampire properly skewered, Kurama simply let the cold creep into the surrounding foliage and lifted his hand off the ground to rub it against the other, trying to put some feeling back in his fingers.

"I'll take a look at Karua, you two…" Moka trialed off ass he saw Kokoa and Kurumu already running over to their companions. Her eyebrow twitched at being ignored, but let it slide for now. "Fine then, I'll check on big sister."

As soon as she got over to Mizore, Kurumu knelt down to look at the snow fairy, who was still in a daze from her…kiss. "Okay snow girl, time to get up," Kurumu said without much sympathy. "Fights over, you're safe. Victory party at your house, then we go home."

"Just…leave me."

"Oh for the love of…" Kurumu reached down to yank Mizore up by her hair, then planted one on the girl's lips.

No one noticed Gin's sudden recovery in the background; or the fact he was focusing his camera on the girls.

Then, Kurumu kissed Mizore again, taking the girl in her arms. The third one involved the succubus putting her tongue in the snow fairy's mouth to interlock it with Mizore's own as well as explore every centimeter of the other girl's mouth.

When Kurumu was finally done, Mizore pulled away and was reduced to a fit of spitting. "What the heck was _that_ for? And _how_ did you do that with your _tongue_?" she whined.

"Is it wrong that even I thought that was hot?" Kokoa asked the freezing boy beside her as she helped him to his feet.

"Thought nothing," Gin said as he zipped up next to her to help with the injured redhead, and get a detailed close-up of the girls. "In my expert opinion, that _was_ hot."

Kurumu stood up and crossed her arms under her breasts. "You done feeling stupid? So some guy stole your first kiss, you just got mine. Let me tell you, it's not that bad. Now come on and get going. And if you don't, I swear I'm going to make out with you all the way back to school!"

"Please do!" Gin begged before Kurumu kicked him in the stomach before snatching the wolf's camera away and pointing an accusing finger at him.

"You look after the…uh…hey, does anyone know what Shuichi actually _is_?"

"Well he smells like a human," Gin informed everyone.

Mizore looked at the plant-based weaponry and thought back to the fight. With that and his inability to handle cold temperatures… "I'm going to go with witch."

"Fairy maybe?" Kokoa suggested. She didn't buy the witch angle, they already had one of those.

"That makes sense," Kurumu agreed. "That way, all the gay jokes would be foreshadowing as to what type of monster he is."

The succubus and vampire blinked when they noticed a menacing aura coming from the other redhead. "I'm not gay! And would someone give me a jacket already? I'm quite literally freezing to death!"

Kokoa quickly tripped Gin and tore off the werewolf's school jacket to give it to her minion. It wasn't much, but she supposed it would do till she could get him back the village and break his legs to make sure he didn't go running off on her again.

On the other side of the battlefield, Moka couldn't even put up an uncaring front when she looked at Tsukune's other love interests. "Now I'm wondering if that harem was _just_ for sharing Tsukune, or for Kurumu to have other options."

"It's…not…over…yet," the woman on the ground next to Moka got out between labored breaths.

The younger vampire looked over to her feet, then jumped back just in time to avoid a swipe of Karua's wings before the vampire tore herself free of the weeds, slicing several more of her muscles as she did so.

_You have got to be kidding me_! Moka thought as her sister stood up, gravely injured, but still moving. Blood ran from the numerous wounds all over her body, some going all the way through, while others left pieces of flesh hanging off from when she cut herself getting up.

If their places had been reversed, Moka knew she wouldn't have been anywhere near being able to with that much damage. Every step caused Karua to bleed more. The pain alone would have caused her to pass out. So why wasn't she still on the ground? No one could just _ignore _that level of pain without some serious help.

_Now I get it_, Moka realized. "You're charmed, aren't you sister?"

It all fit. When under a magical charm to act a certain way, they would do almost anything to carry out a task. Kurumu could do it in terms of making other people fall in love with her. If she could make Tsukune her boyfriend when he didn't want to be, Moka didn't want to know how long Karua would be willing to fight when she wasn't working against the mind control.

Then there was _Moka's_ motivational problem. She didn't want to have to kill her big sister after seeing her for the first time in over six years. _Damn it, what am I supposed to do_?

As long as Karua could still move, she was still a danger. But in her condition, any more damage done to the older vampire might be fatal.

Moka made her decision. "One more step and you won't be getting up again sister," she warned the older vampire.

Karua positioned herself to strike. Moka could see it would be an all or nothing charge. That was apparently all her sister could do now. _So all I have to do is avoid that arm, and I can counter_.

The sound of an engine drew Moka's attention for a moment, and she looked over her sister's shoulder to spot a pair of headlights cutting through the white curtain of snow.

"Karua fall back!"

Moka stood there as Karua leaped away right before the large caterpillar tred-equipped truck plowed through the snow drove into their area. A man stepped out of the passenger's side, and looked around. The newcomer was a man in a long coat with his hair slicked back in a company haircut.

"Who're you?" the silver-haired vampire demanded evenly.

Miyabi sighed. "Am I really going to have to go through introductions again?" he asked in a bored tone. _That makes this…what? Three times just tonight alone_? "Oh very well, I am Miyabi Fujisaki."

"You shouldn't talk to a vampire so disrespectfully," Moka shouted before she came in low and began with a spin kick towards his head. "**Know your place**!"

For his part, Miyabi also charged forward to meet the girl halfway, the stuck with his good arm, bringing it across his body in a hook to strike the vampire's leg and foot right at the joint. The counter knocked the girl off balance thanks to the uneven footing provided by the slippery snow, but he knew he'd have trouble holding his coffee in the morning.

Then, with Moka still lacking good footing, he quickly spun to add momentum to a backhand and struck the girl in the cheek to send her flying back.

Moka rolled as she landed and came up in a crouched position.

"Are we done here?" the man asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Karua had gotten into the back of the truck. If the kids were smart, they would back down. If not, things could become very problematic very quickly.

"As if!" Kokoa yelled as she came charging up from behind the stranger.

_Stupid girl_, Miyabi told himself. If she had kept quiet, she would have been able to get in a hit. As it was, he managed to swat away her punch, then brought his knee up to her chin to buy time to pull back his fist.

Only when he tried to lay a haymaker into the child's jaw, Miyabi felt a tug, and found a vine holding his wrist. "What the?" he shouted before looking over to Kurama. But the confusion only mounted when he saw that the pseudo boy's demonic aura wasn't active.

"Our balloon-chested succubus has this wonderful ability to fool idiots into seeing what she wants them to," Moka explained as she came in from the side. This time when Moka attacked, the kick landed square center on the man's chest and sent him flying right into the passenger door of his truck, and through it into the cab. "And since you actually got hit this time…**KNOW YOUR PLACE**!"

"You said that already," Mizore pointed out.

From behind the vampire, Kurumu stomped her foot into the snow. "Hey thanks for telling idiot! If he knows they're illusions, they're not effective!"

Moka looked back at Kurumu and frowned. "Did you just call me an idiot?"

Kurumu flinched. _Opps, insulted the wrong Moka_. She gulped nervously, then the villains saved the succubus from a rather painful beating when the truck revved up and took off. "They're getting away!"

"Tch!" Moka grumbled, then looked over at Gin. "Can you catch them?"

"Not in this crap," Gin told her has he gestured to the snowstorm.

"It's n-not like w-we d-don't kn-know where they're going," Kurama got out through his chattering teeth. "They'll probably regroup at the palace."

Mizore raised her hand to get everyone's attention. "Actually, the only thing in that direction is the exit tunnel."

Kokoa looked in the direction the truck had disappeared, then back to everyone else. "So…we win?" The bad guys were running the damsel in distress was saved, and the idiot who almost got himself killed was still alive. As far as she could see, everything was wrapped up.

Well, except for her minion's punishment, but that could wait till he wasn't cold enough to shatter from a good punch. Kokoa was going to make sure her idiot of an underling was going to regret making her come out into a storm like this.

"I wouldn't say that," Mizore said, replying to Kokoa's question reluctantly.

Far away from the group, Miyabi pulled himself into the truck's cab and tore off the ruined door when he noticed it wasn't going to shut. Having to hold the thing shut and listening to its constant rattling would have quickly gotten on his nerves.

"So, how did you enjoy meeting my former juniors?" Kiria asked as he drove them away from the battleground and towards the exit.

Miyabi snorted at the boy's comment, then reached over to test his injured shoulder. From what he could tell it was just damaged muscle, but it looked like it would take the better part of a day for it to heal. "I wasn't aware that the yoko Kurama attended your old high school."

"Who?"

"Tch," the older man grumbled as he reached into his pocket to pull out a cigarette. "That's right, you're too young to have been at the last tournament." Not that it would have mattered, as the demon they did send to tape the thing had been killed off during the final round like most of the other spectators. It was just dumb luck the investigation team that had been sent to Hanging Neck Isle to find out what happened stumbled across the video footage their talent scout had been recording.

"And I suppose teaching you kids anything important is too much to ask for a curriculum based on something humans invented."

Miyabi reached under the seat to grab the first aid kit. "Well whatever. Slow down so I can get on the back and take a look at Karua's wounds. Soon as we're outside, I want you to place a call to inhuman resources."

Then he looked back at Kiria. "You did complete the mission, right?" Miyabi asked as an afterthought.

-The Next Day at the Snow Palace-

"What do you mean _married_?" Tsukune asked as he looked at Mizore in surprise when he heard the last of the in-depth version of what happened last night.

When Tsukune and Yukari had gotten the news this morning that everything had been dealt with, he had rushed over to Moka her rosary and gotten caught up on most of the story. The basics of it: bad guys ran off, turncoat priestess caught, and flower ceremony canceled was quickly given as the cliff notes version. Although Tsukune being the kind of guy he was, demanded the whole story.

It was a decision Moka would come to regret in time…in about ten seconds.

Yukari raised her wand to lecture Tsukune. "It's a social agreement where two people agree to live together and bear children. Although there's a religious context to it nowadays, in the beginning it was pretty much just fathers selling their daughters off as breeding stock."

"That wasn't a real question!" Tsukune told the witch.

"Yeah that's how I took it too," Kurumu told Tsukune as she peeked over his shoulder. It was kind of heartbreaking and scary at the same time, Mizore of all people getting hitched before a succubus. _What is wrong with the world today_?

"Congratulations," Moka said as she bowed her pink-haired head.

Mizore took the candy out of her mouth. "Uh…you do know he kidnapped me, forced me into this marriage, and forced himself on me, right?"

Tsukune blanched. "Uh…"

"Oh…" Moka looked away from the snow fairy and gulped whil she tried to pull her foot out of her mouth. It was times like this when she _really_ wished she could remember more than just a few bit's a pieces of when the rosary was off.

The whole thing was just so unfair. How come the other Moka knew everything that happened when she was sealed up, but the Moka that was out for most of the time barely knew what was going on when she got back?

Yukari shrugged. "Then it was a traditional monster marriage?"

"Forced himself…IT WAS A KISS!" Kurumu shouted after mumbling the first part in anger, pushing Tsukune out of the way to start a fight with Mizore.

Mizore sighed dramatically, and clasped her hands together dramatically. "You don't know what its like when your first kiss is with someone other than the boy you love," she countered.

"Yes I do! I GAVE MINE TO YOU!" the other monster yelled.

Moka jerked away from her friends. "Eh?"

The information brightened Yukari's day. "Really? So you're giving up on Tsukune to start one of those forbidden romances with Mizore. Wait, if snow fairies were originally all female partnerships, then should I call it traditional relationship instead?"

A sort distance away from the fight, Tsukune gulped to keep the rush of blood he was feeling under control. "S-Say what?"

A second later, Moka was in front of Tsukune, holding his hands desperately. "Don't worry Tsukune, I'll save my first kiss for you!"

"Like hell you will!" Kurumu shouted before she attacked Moka. "If I can't give Tsukune my virgin lips, then no one's going to give him theirs either!"

The thought of evening th playing field at least that much brightened the snow fairy's attitude quite a bit. "Get her!" Mizore said.

Yukari blinked as the older monsters ran past her, chasing Moka. "Well as much as I'd like to also declare my virgin lips property of Tsukune…I'm not missing out on this one."

From the sidelines, Kokoa watched with tears in her eyes as the thing that looked like her sister ran around the palace looking like an idiot. _This is so wrong_.

"So Kokoa, what're we supposed to do about…you know," Gin asked as he pointed over to the snow priestess.

The snow woman in question was currently hanging upside down from the ceiling, most of her body wrapped in bindings that the Fairy Tale goons had left behind that kept her from using any of her abilities.

"Let me go you fools!" she shouted as she struggled, only succeeding in swinging herself back and forth. "You have no idea what you've done! Without protection, the demon child will return to the village! He must be stopped or all is lost!"

Kokoa ignored the idiot woman's ramblings and just shrugged at Gin's question. "That bitch nearly got my best friend killed and one of my sister's friends raped, keep her tied up for all I care. Still say we should have also used the gag though…no matter how S&M the thing looked."

The thought made Gin grin. "Yeah….then maybe you could get that whip and-"

When she saw Kurumu was still busy trying to make out with the fake Moka, Kokoa reached up and socked Gin on the jaw. With the werewolf rightfully back on the floor, Kokoa dusted off her hands and looked over to Tsukune. "I'm going to check on-never mind," she mumbled at the end when she noticed the blood dripping from the boy's nose over the fact Mizore had caught the sealed vampire.

"Mizore, where did you learn to do _that_ with you_ tongue_?"

"Kurumu," the snow fairy explained.

While the semi-harem had their stupid infighting, Kokoa sneaked away to check on more important things. She came into Shuichi's room to find him still sleep, but his skin was at least back to a normal color. The events of last night ran through her mind again, with one in particular.

It had been after they got to the snow palace, taken care of the priestess, and deiced to stay the night instead of walking back in the freezing cold…

_Kokoa walked out of Shuichi's bedroom and shut the door behind her, then jumped when she noticed her sister waiting for her right outside the door. "It's not what you think!" she assured the older vampire. "I was just checking on him! The frostbite's not bad enough he's gonna lose anything, but it was close_."

_For a moment the strangeness of the situation washed over her. Just a few weeks ago, she would have been attacking her awakened sister on sight. But at the moment…she just didn't feel like it_.

"_Kokoa, how much do you know about that boy?_"

"_Shuichi?" she asked before answering her own question while shrugging. "He's just your basic nerd. Head of the class…although that's not much of an achievement considering the competition. The plant thing's new…although it's pretty girly, so it kind of fits with his whole pretty-boy stereotype._"

"_And yet he was able to survive against Karua in her awakened state, something we didn't even know she __**had**__, for what? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Then there's the fact he didn't have a mark on him after fighting a __**vampire**__. Don't you think that's a little odd?" Moka asked as she gave her little sister an accusing look_.

_Kokoa shrugged. "Yeah, I asked Mizore about that too. Seems he was smart and kept big sister from getting too close with a bunch of weird weapons." She crossed her arms and smirked as something came to mind. "Now that I think about it…I should probably have him show me what he knows so I can beat the crap out of you come next week._"

"_Why're you so defensive of him?" Moka demanded_.

"_Why're __**you**__ so paranoid?" Kokoa countered_.

_Moka grit her teeth. "Because he's hiding something. There isn't a demon alive that can do what he did._"

_The accusations towards the other redhead were starting to get on Kokoa's nerves. "Sure there is! Just because vampires are awesome doesn't mean some looser monster can't claw their way up to our level in at least one area if he works at it," Kokoa told her. Even if Shuichi had an impressive demonic aura, his strength and durability were barely more than a human's. Kokoa knew that for a fact_.

"_And how many can do that while retaining a human form?" Moka asked_.

Kokoa shook off the nagging memory, and looked back to her minion. When she saw him stir and open his eyes, Kokoa jumped to her feet. "Shuichi you're awake! You need anything? Food?…water?" she asked hesitantly.

"Where am I?" he mumbled.

Since it seemed he was okay, Kokoa sat back down in her chair. "The palace. Don't worry, we took care of the priestess. They'll probably let her go after we leave, but that's then and this is now. We got the snow fairy back and kept you from dying, that's all that I give a damn about."

"Thank you."

Kokoa blushed, then looked away from the other redhead. "Yeah well…you should have gone with the rest of-wait, it would have been too late for Mizore by then," Kokoa said ahs she cut her scolding to admit to the reality of the situation. "You should have woken me up so we could have gone together!"

"Then I could have gotten sis…and she would have woke that stupid boyfriend of hers up…who would have probably done something stupid like wake everyone else up…"

Kurama smirked at the girl. "So you're agreeing with my decision then?"

"LIKE HELL I AM!" Kokoa yelled as she stood up to stomp her foot. "You could have gotten yourself killed you idiot! You're my underling, that means you don't do anything unless I tell you to. If you…if something happened…"

She quickly looked away again to keep him from noticing her eyes as she grabbed her upset stomach to try and keep it from doing back flips when the images of Shuichi nearly blue from the cold replayed themselves in her head.

"Sorry for worrying you."

Kokoa looked down at her feet and clicked her tongue as she tried to think of something else to say before everything got too awkward for her liking. "So uh…since we're outside of school… I'm curious. What kind of monster are you?"

"What?" the old boy asked, sounding a little confused and nervous.

The lack of response made Kokoa turn around, and unfold her hands while shrugging. "I understand you being embarrassed. I mean, a monster dying from the _cold_? Don't tell me your one of those lame slimes or imp things that level 1 adventurers only run into just outside of a town."

Kurama groaned at the game reference insult. For a fraction of a second Kurama considered telling her the truth, but thought better of it. For one, he couldn't actually _prove_ anything about his actual species since he couldn't change at will even if he wanted to, and producing fox fire while in a body that didn't have a natural resistance to it was rather debilitating…and painful, really, _really_ painful.

So he went trough the list of monsters he could lie about being. _Let's see… witches are out since I don't have a focus… I can't fake a doppelganger's shape shifting…no horns means saying I'm a basic oni is out of the question…I suppose I could go with the obvious…_

"I'm…human," Kurama lied hesitantly to make it seem he debated telling her the truth for a few moments. Well, it wasn't really a lie per say. The body he was in _was_ a human one.

Kokoa frowned, not believing it for a second. "Uh huh…tell me another one."

Kurama sighed. "Fine I'll prove it." He reached up and put his finger on the edge of his teeth, so that just the smallest bit of sin would be caught in-between and bit down hard enough to draw blood. "You've tasted human blood before, right?"

After that, he put pressure next to the wound to help draw out some blood held out his finger to Kokoa. "See? Human blood."

Kokoa blinked. With no good blood in her for the past twenty-four hours, the coppery scent coming from Shuichi's finger was simply intoxicating. She sniffed the air to draw in that wonderful scent, then got on her knees and examined the red liquid that looked and smelled so delicious at eye level. The short vampire licked the blood of Shuichi's finger, and her body shook as the taste brought her into a state of euphoria.

"Now do you believe-uh, Kokoa?"

She had tasted human blood before, but it had always been in a chilled pouch taken from a blood bank and at least a few days old. But this…_this_…_liquid nirvana…it _was beyond anything that had ever satisfied her thirst before. Fresh human blood was on a whole other level than the pre-packaged variety.

"So _good_!" she said before grabbing Shuichi's wrist before he could pull the tantalizing treat away. Kokoa sucked on the finger to draw more blood, its amazing taste drawing a moan of absolute pleasure from the girl.

Kurama frowned at Kokoa's reaction, and his inability to break loose of her grip. "Okay…now I'm just feeling dirty," he mumbled to himself.

After another minute, Kokoa broke contact with Shuichi's finger and looked up at him with a blush and her eyes in a dreamy daze. "More." The tantalizing trickle of blood Kokoa was sucking from a tiny cut like that only taunted her. She needed more, her whole body ached for it.

Kurama cleared his throat. "That was just supposed to prove-"

"Yeah fine, you're a human with weird magic powers and an overdeveloped sense of smell," Kokoa said between breaths. "Now, gimmie more."

_Well since I doubt she's going o go away if I don't… _Kurama sat up and turned his hand so his wrist was facing the vampire's face. "Here."

"Not there," Kokoa told him. An instant later she was on the bed, her legs straddling Shuichi's stomach a she moved her head down to get within biting range of his lower neck when it met his shoulder. "Here."

Unable to take the thirst any more, but still somehow about to give a second to wait for any objections, Kokoa bit into the other redhead and drank deeply. The little taste she had experienced before was completely blown away by the mouthful of red liquid that absolutely drenched her taste buds.

She wrapped her arms around Shuichi's chest to stay upright and drew her whole body close to his.

"Kokoa?" Kurama asked as the girl pressed her body up against his before taking another drink of his blood.

A third drink, and Kokoa finally took her fangs out and came up for air, panting heavily from the sheer ecstasy that drinking fresh blood had given her. Kokoa let out one final breath of pleasure, then looked at the boy she had drank from out of the corner of her eye.

Kokoa blinked, then pulled back a bit, bringing herself nose to nose with the human. She licked the blood off her lips. It felt like her heart tried to ram its way through her chest. The vampire looked down to Shuichi's pale lips and took in a breath.

Kokoa took in his looks for a moment as she moved her face closer to his. The boy really was beautiful; for people who were into girly-type men that it. It wasn't just his face though, his chest was…bare… Then Kokoa noticed the position they were in, the young vampire on top of him like a…she left the comparison unfinished.

"Are you done?" Shuichi asked her in an even tone with a raised eyebrow, his face and voice just about as unreadable as ever.

A sudden feeling of nervousness overcame here when she realized just what she was about to do. With the spell broken, the last fifteen seconds replayed themselves in a new light, and Kokoa's face turned bright red when she remembered what she had even thought about doing, if even for just a second.

"I gotta go!" Kokoa practically shouted before she jumped off of the bed and ran out the door in a rush, slamming it behind her. Then she opened it just enough to put her head back in. "Don't you ever get nearly killed again, GOT IT?"

Kurama blinked as the door slammed shut again, wondering what had happened to Kokoa. For a moment, it actually seemed as if the girl was about to… _Well that's just stupid_, he told himself in response to even considering the possibility. The thought of a vampire even having such thoughts was an impossibility. He'd learned enough lore about the creatures since coming to Yokai Academy to know that they were much too prideful for that.

Out in the hallway, Kokoa tried to catch her breath while the images from just moments ago replayed themselves in her mind. She didn't know what was more disturbing: the fact she had almost kissed the boy, or the voice in her head screaming how big an idiot she was for not going through with it when she had the perfect chance.


End file.
